(Originally written May 14, 2007 in Book 16)
Beyond Good & Evil
Friedrich Nietzsche
Basic Writings of Nietzsche
Translated Walter Kaufmann
Published in 1886
Preface
Dogmatism is nothing more than noble childishness and tyranny
Let us hope that dogmatism is to finding truth as astrology was to real science.
"It seems that all great things first have to bestride the earth in monstrous and frightening masks in order to inscribe themselves in the hearts of humanity with eternal demands dogmatic philosophy was such a mask, for example, the Vedanta doctrine in Asia and Platonism in Europe" (Nietzsche, 193).
The worst error of dogmatism was Plato's invention of pure spirit and the good as such.
Christianity is the Platonism for the people.
The tension between truth and dogmatism is great and has been attempted to be relieved twice: Once by Jesuitism, once by democracy.
Part One: On the Prejudices of Philosophers
1.
What in us really desires truth? Where did the will to truth come from?
Why do we desire truth? Why not untruth, uncertainty or ignorance?
The quest for truth involves risk.
2.
The prejudice that things cannot arise from their opposites is deceptive.
Judging things on this prejudice (that X cannot arise from its opposite) is prejudgment
He can doubt that there are really opposites at ll.
Metaphysicians rely most on the faith that opposites exist. But where is the truth in that?
3.
"Most of the conscious thinking of a philosopher is secretly guided and forced into certain channels by his instincts" (Nietzsche, 201).
Value judgments like 'the definite is worth more than the definite' or 'mere appearance is worse than truth' may not be true. They may be simply a kind of "naiserie" (folly, stupidity, or silliness) that is necessary for us to maintain our way of life. Those maxims may simply be one of perspective and not of truth.
Man may not be the measure of all things.
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