more on this theme | more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
One would have to know what being is in order to decide whether this or that is real - but we don't know that.
Gist of Idea
We can't be realists, because we don't know what being is
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (Writings from Late Notebooks [1887], 02[87])
Book Ref
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Writings from the Late Notebooks', ed/tr. Bittner,Rüdiger [CUP 2003], p.76
A Reaction
Nietzsche is a genius - he puts his finger on something which has always bothered me about realism, even though I call myself a 'realist'. Being and existence are utterly indefinable, and even incomprehensible, so what do we realists believe in?