Single Idea 7186

[catalogued under 10. Modality / A. Necessity / 11. Denial of Necessity]

Full Idea

What's necessary is that something must be held to be true; not that something is true.

Gist of Idea

There are no necessary truths, but something must be held to be true

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Writings from Late Notebooks [1887], 09[38])

Book Reference

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Writings from the Late Notebooks', ed/tr. Bittner,Rüdiger [CUP 2003], p.148


A Reaction

This may be right, but it doesn't follow that the truths we label as 'necessary' are the ones that we have to believe, or even that we have to believe that our chosen beliefs are necessary rather than contingent. Why did we pick those beliefs?