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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'The Will to Power (notebooks)' and 'The Actual and the Possible'

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3 ideas

11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 1. Knowledge
We can't know whether there is knowledge if we don't know what it is [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: If we do not know what knowledge is, we cannot possibly answer the question of whether there is knowledge.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §530)
     A reaction: Obviously Nietzsche is pessimistic about the prospects here, but this is a motto for the whole modern analysis of knowledge, and (besides) we have lots of things (like a concept of identity) which we can't define.
11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 4. Belief / c. Aim of beliefs
Every belief is a considering-something-true [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Every belief is a considering-something-true.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §015)
     A reaction: This is correct, I think, but a little perplexing coming from Nietzsche, who seems to deny objective truth. Presumably we should follow instinct, rather than 'belief'.
11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 1. Certainty
A note for asses: What convinces is not necessarily true - it is merely convincing [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: What convinces is not necessarily true - it is merely convincing (a note for asses).
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §017)
     A reaction: I hope I am not such an ass that I need Nietzsche to explain this, as I have always thought it true. Many good modern epistemologists seem to me guilty of this error, though. Pragmatists, riff-raff like that…