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Ideas for 'Parmenides', 'Fragments from 1885-1886' and 'works'

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3 ideas

18. Thought / D. Concepts / 1. Concepts / a. Nature of concepts
Concepts are rough groups of simultaneous sensations [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Concepts are more or less definite groups of sensations that arrive together.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1885-86 [1886], 34[086])
     A reaction: I like this because I favour accounts of concepts which root them in experience, and largely growing unthinking out of communcal experience. Nietzsche is very empirical here. Hume would probably agree.
Concepts don’t match one thing, but many things a little bit [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: A concept is an invention that doesn't correspond entirely to anything; but to many things a little bit.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1885-86 [1886], 34[131])
     A reaction: This seems to cover some concepts quite well, but others not at all. What else does 'square' correspond to?
18. Thought / D. Concepts / 2. Origin of Concepts / a. Origin of concepts
Whatever their origin, concepts survive by being useful [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The most useful concepts have survived: however falsely they may have originated.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1885-86 [1886], 34[063])
     A reaction: The germ of both pragmatism, and of meaning-as-use, here. The alternative views must be that the concepts are accurate or true, or that they are simply a matter of whim, maintained by authority.