Single Idea 14866

[catalogued under 11. Knowledge Aims / C. Knowing Reality / 1. Perceptual Realism / b. Direct realism]

Full Idea

Against Kant we can still object, even if we accept all his propositions, that it is still possible that the world is as it appears to us.

Gist of Idea

It always remains possible that the world just is the way it appears

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [125])

Book Reference

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Unpublished of 'Unfashionable Obs' period (v 11)', ed/tr. Gray,Richard T. [Stanford 1995], p.42


A Reaction

This little thought at least seems to be enough to block the slide from phenomenalism into total idealism. The idea that direct realism can never be ruled out, even if it is false, is very striking.