Truth As A Species Of Error In Nietzsche

[Dr. Spock]

In Nietzsche there is an equivalence (a Dionysian dialectic) between the existentially existing, 'fatally disorganized,' self on the one hand, and the universe of chaos and flux, on the other. In fact, the universe, in the end, is to be absolutely occluded by the 'drives' of the human psyche:


"The universe must be splintered apart; respect for the universe unlearned; what we have given the unknown and the whole must be taken back and given to the closest, what's ours. Kant said: "Two things remain forever worthy of admiration and awe" [the starry heavens above and the moral law within] --- today we would rather say: 'Digestion is more venerable'. The universe would always bring with it the old problems, "How is evil possible?", etc. Thus: there is no universe. -Nietzsche (1886-87)


For Nietzsche, western man values truth NOT as the result of an objective philosophical critique but as a moral prejudice, an historical 'value-invention.' To us, God is truth and truth is God and it is possible that we can't survive without holding precisely this belief. Survival is - in practice - a very particular set of activities and not of the essence of things in themselves.

Our individual survival has nothing to do with mathematical certitude, for example. Our biological needs and processes are what Nietzsche calls 'the biology of living error'; error being the father of all living things. They are classifiable as errors because they are (anthropomorphic, egoistic) falsifications...because when we make a value judgment we are attempting to 'transform' or 'digest' psychologically, an irrational, purposeless and meaningless environment into the set of human concepts.


Truth and error are thus held to be interdependent within our only knowable reality --the psyche of man. Untruth is a condition of life as well as part of an honest philosophy of life which chooses to leave in the intimate, soulful aspects.

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[TheVisionofEr]

What does life mean exactly? And is it truly life? Nietsche points to a word of Goethe's aprovingly: "I hate everything that merely instructs me without augmenting or directly invigorating my activity." He seems to imply that it is true. Or, in any case, truly part of the region of the life-giving ethos.