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Single Idea 4528
[filed under theme 10. Modality / A. Necessity / 11. Denial of Necessity
]
Full Idea
The most strongly believed a priori 'truths' are for me provisional assumptions (e.g. the law of causality).
Gist of Idea
For me, a priori 'truths' are just provisional assumptions
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §497)
Book Ref
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Will to Power', ed/tr. Kaufmann,W /Hollingdate,R [Vintage 1968], p.273
A Reaction
The example of causality would fit in with Humean scepticism, but presumably Nietzsche would also apply it to maths and logic, since he is a thorough-going relativist. I cautiously disagree.
The
78 ideas
from 'The Will to Power (notebooks)'
5652
|
True beliefs are those which augment one's power
[Nietzsche, by Scruton]
|
4485
|
Every belief is a considering-something-true
[Nietzsche]
|
4486
|
The extreme view is there are only perspectives, no true beliefs, because there is no true world
[Nietzsche]
|
4487
|
A note for asses: What convinces is not necessarily true - it is merely convincing
[Nietzsche]
|
4488
|
Those who have abandoned God cling that much more firmly to the faith in morality
[Nietzsche]
|
4489
|
If faith is lost, people seek other authorities, in order to avoid the risk of willing personal goals
[Nietzsche]
|
4491
|
In modern society virtue is 'equal rights', but only because everyone is zero, so it is a sum of zeroes
[Nietzsche]
|
4493
|
Be natural! But how, if one happens to be "unnatural"?
[Nietzsche]
|
20357
|
Truth was given value by morality, but eventually turned against its own source
[Nietzsche]
|
4494
|
Not "return to nature", for there has never yet been a natural humanity
[Nietzsche]
|
4495
|
The high points of culture and civilization do not coincide
[Nietzsche]
|
4496
|
'Conscience' is invented to value actions by intention and conformity to 'law', rather than consequences
[Nietzsche]
|
4497
|
The concept of 'God' represents a turning away from life, and a critique of life
[Nietzsche]
|
4498
|
'Love your enemy' is unnatural, for the natural law says 'love your neighbour and hate your enemy'
[Nietzsche]
|
4499
|
Primitive Christianity is abolition of the state; it is opposed to defence, justice, patriotism and class
[Nietzsche]
|
4500
|
It is a sign of degeneration when eudaimonistic values begin to prevail
[Nietzsche]
|
20359
|
The nature of being, of things, is much easier to understand than is becoming
[Nietzsche]
|
4502
|
Morality cannot survive when the God who sanctions it is missing
[Nietzsche]
|
4501
|
Utilitarianism criticises the origins of morality, but still believes in it as much as Christians
[Nietzsche]
|
20370
|
All evaluation is from some perspective, and aims at survival
[Nietzsche]
|
20383
|
The wisest man is full of contradictions, and attuned to other people, with occasional harmony
[Nietzsche]
|
4504
|
Morality used to be for preservation, but now we can only experiment, giving ourselves moral goals
[Nietzsche]
|
4505
|
How can it be that I should prefer my neighbour to myself, but he should prefer me to himself?
[Nietzsche]
|
4506
|
There is a conspiracy (a will to power) to make morality dominate other values, like knowledge and art
[Nietzsche]
|
4507
|
The categorical imperative needs either God behind it, or a metaphysic of the unity of reason
[Nietzsche]
|
4508
|
The truth is what gives us the minimum of spiritual effort, and avoids the exhaustion of lying
[Nietzsche]
|
20372
|
The instinct of the herd, the majority, aims for the mean, in the middle
[Nietzsche]
|
4509
|
Utilitarians prefer consequences because intentions are unknowable - but so are consequences!
[Nietzsche]
|
4510
|
A path to power: to introduce a new virtue under the name of an old one
[Nietzsche]
|
4511
|
We would avoid a person who always needed reasons for remaining decent
[Nietzsche]
|
4512
|
Virtue is pursued from self-interest and prudence, and reduces people to non-entities
[Nietzsche]
|
4513
|
Virtuous people are inferior because they are not 'persons', but conform to a fixed pattern
[Nietzsche]
|
4514
|
The basic tendency of the weak has always been to pull down the strong, using morality
[Nietzsche]
|
4515
|
Modesty, industriousness, benevolence and temperance are the virtues of a good slave
[Nietzsche]
|
4516
|
Many virtues are merely restraints on the most creative qualities of a human being
[Nietzsche]
|
4517
|
Egoism is inescapable, and when it grows weak, the power of love also grows weak
[Nietzsche]
|
4519
|
The ego is only a fiction, and doesn't exist at all
[Nietzsche]
|
23938
|
Passions are ranked, as if they are non-rational and animal pleasure seeking
[Nietzsche]
|
23939
|
We fail to see that reason is a network of passions, and every passion contains some reason
[Nietzsche]
|
4520
|
I don't want to persuade anyone to be a philosopher; they should be rare plants
[Nietzsche]
|
4521
|
None of the ancients had the courage to deny morality by denying free will
[Nietzsche]
|
4523
|
What can be 'demonstrated' is of little worth
[Nietzsche]
|
20374
|
Consciousness is a terminal phenomenon, and causes nothing
[Nietzsche]
|
4525
|
There are no facts in themselves, only interpretations
[Nietzsche]
|
4527
|
Perhaps we are not single subjects, but a multiplicity of 'cells', interacting to create thought
[Nietzsche]
|
4528
|
For me, a priori 'truths' are just provisional assumptions
[Nietzsche]
|
4530
|
Reason is a mere idiosyncrasy of a certain species of animal
[Nietzsche]
|
4533
|
Logic and maths refer to fictitious entities which we have created
[Nietzsche]
|
4532
|
We can have two opposite sensations, like hard and soft, at the same time
[Nietzsche]
|
4531
|
Our inability to both affirm and deny a single thing is merely an inability, not a 'necessity'
[Nietzsche]
|
4534
|
'Truth' is the will to be master over the multiplicity of sensations
[Nietzsche]
|
4535
|
A 'species' is a stable phase of evolution, implying the false notion that evolution has a goal
[Nietzsche]
|
4536
|
It is a major blunder to think of consciousness as a unity, and hence as an entity, a thing
[Nietzsche]
|
4539
|
The forms of 'knowledge' about logic which precede experience are actually regulations of belief
[Nietzsche]
|
4537
|
We can't know whether there is knowledge if we don't know what it is
[Nietzsche]
|
4538
|
Judgements can't be true and known in isolation; the only surety is in connections and relations
[Nietzsche]
|
4541
|
Everything simple is merely imaginary
[Nietzsche]
|
4542
|
Science has taken the meaning out of causation; cause and effect are two equal sides of an equation
[Nietzsche]
|
4543
|
There are no 'facts-in-themselves', since a sense must be projected into them to make them 'facts'
[Nietzsche]
|
4544
|
A thing has no properties if it has no effect on other 'things'
[Nietzsche]
|
4545
|
Could not the objective character of things be merely a difference of degree within the subjective?
[Nietzsche]
|
4546
|
We realise that properties are sensations of the feeling subject, not part of the thing
[Nietzsche]
|
4548
|
Only because there is thought is there untruth
[Nietzsche]
|
4551
|
Great self-examination is to become conscious of oneself not as an individual, but as mankind
[Nietzsche]
|
4550
|
Pleasure and pain are mere epiphenomena, and achievement requires that one desire both
[Nietzsche]
|
20362
|
We saw unity in things because our ego seemed unified (but now we doubt the ego!)
[Nietzsche]
|
4553
|
We derive the popular belief in cause and effect from our belief that our free will causes things
[Nietzsche]
|
4552
|
There is no such things a pure 'willing' on its own; the aim must always be part of it
[Nietzsche]
|
4554
|
The concept of the 'will' is just a false simplification by our understanding
[Nietzsche]
|
20354
|
The ruling drives of our culture all want to be the highest court of our values
[Nietzsche]
|
4555
|
The great error is to think that happiness derives from virtue, which in turn derives from free will
[Nietzsche]
|
4557
|
The supposed great lovers of honour (Alexander etc) were actually great despisers of honour
[Nietzsche]
|
4558
|
We have no more right to 'happiness' than worms
[Nietzsche]
|
4559
|
When powerless one desires freedom; if power is too weak, one desires equal power ('justice')
[Nietzsche]
|
4560
|
The Golden Rule prohibits harmful actions, with the premise that actions will be requited
[Nietzsche]
|
20136
|
There is an extended logic to a great man's life, achieved by a sustained will
[Nietzsche]
|
20358
|
The highest man can endure and control the greatest combination of powerful drives
[Nietzsche]
|
20369
|
The highest man directs the values of the highest natures over millenia
[Nietzsche]
|