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Nietzsche - The Key Ideas: Perspectivism

by Dr Roy Jackson

Nietzsche adopted a view of knowledge that is referred to as perspectivism which, essentially, argues that there is no such thing as absolute knowledge that is independent of our perspective. Even in science and logic we are trapped within the confines of our human perspective upon the world. Therefore, Nietzsche is reacting against such renowned philosophers as Plato, who talks of Forms as having independent existence, and Kant who talks of the ‘noumena’. Even if there were such a thing as a noumenal world, we cannot ever know it. As human beings we are not only limited by the human senses, but also our perspective is determined by our language, culture, history, climate and so on. Nietzsche, however, should not be classed as a crude relativist, because he does not accept the consequence that any one view is as good as another. However, his perspectivism does seem akin to the view that views are relative to a particular framework of time, place, culture, etc. Nietzsche, therefore, does not entirely escape the relativist accusation, although this does not prevent him from declaring that certain false are ‘false’ or ‘stupid’ so far as he is concerned.

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