Abstract: The entire critical-occidental tradition of philosophical questioning can be understood as an epistemological project of an analysis of truth, an 'obligation of truth' (DE 4/723). This concern for the truth reads from Plato to Hegel like the history of an obsession, in which attempts to undermine this tradition remain marginal. 'Things being as they are, nothing so far has shown that it is possible to define a strategy outside of this concern' (DE 4/723–4). With Nietzsche a counter-movement became powerful enough to prepare the ground for a 'different thought' through the genealogy of the will for truth prevalent until then. Seen in this light, Nietzsche's philosophy is the life-story of a struggle against the Platonic monopoly of truth. In this context Nietzsche saw Christian monotheism as the greatest expression of the call for truthfulness, simply because it was embodied in one God. For Nietzsche, the term 'God' was the 'counterconcept of life' par excellence (6/373). His diagnosis of God's death, God's silence towards mankind, should therefore be understood as the loss of The Truth; a loss which hailed not nihilism, but the hopeful departure for new shores of a man bearing responsibility for himself.KeywordsCritical AttitudePhilosophical LifeExist Power RelationTrue DiscoursePhilosophical TaskThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Publication Year: 1998
Publication Date: 1998-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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