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5 ideas
4545 | Could not the objective character of things be merely a difference of degree within the subjective? [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: Could not the objective character of things be merely a difference of degree within the subjective? | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §560) | |
A reaction: A reasonable speculation. I begin to feel my opinions are objective if they are reinforced by the agreement of others. One can believe in the facts, but despair of objectivity. It is called 'scepticism'. Buf cf. T.Nagel. |
4530 | Reason is a mere idiosyncrasy of a certain species of animal [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: Reason is a mere idiosyncrasy of a certain species of animal. | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §515) | |
A reaction: Call me narrow-minded, prejudiced and arrogant, but I just don't believe this. Rational minds meet across cultures, and good reasons can rise above culture. However, I may be wrong about this… |
4523 | What can be 'demonstrated' is of little worth [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: What can be 'demonstrated' is of little worth. | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §431) | |
A reaction: He admits that some things can be demonstrated, and that they have some worth. But demonstration may be a matter of coherence, so that anything can be demonstrated, by assuming a range of ideas as being beyond demonstration. |
4531 | Our inability to both affirm and deny a single thing is merely an inability, not a 'necessity' [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: We are unable to affirm and to deny one and the same thing: this is a subjective empirical law, not the expression of any 'necessity', but only an inability. | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §516) | |
A reaction: A remarkable claim, made by someone utterly gripped by relativism. I don't believe it. Why can't we do it? We experience it as a truth, not as a prejudice or mental block. I say it reflects reality - there is only one set of facts. |
4541 | Everything simple is merely imaginary [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: Everything simple is merely imaginary. | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §536) | |
A reaction: A wonderful aphorism. This is one's worst fear, which is why it is suggested that ontological O's R is bad, though epistemological O's R ('be cautious') is fine. I have to admit that I have no idea whether reality is simple. |