Lane.pdf (154.9 kB)
On Truth and Lie in a Rhetorical Sense: Semantic Perils in Nietzschean Thought
journal contribution
posted on 2017-05-21, 05:58 authored by David LaneA dominant theme for Friedrich Nietzsche, one that he often employs to punctuate and dramatise key theoretical concerns, is the distinction between truth and lie. While Nietzsches truth/lie thematic finds expression through a number of concepts on the nature of human deceit, its role within his philosophy may be organised in accordance with three major fields of investigation: morality (where the lie is exaggerated and polemicised), the critique of knowledge (which advances the notion of truth as fiction), and aesthetics (where the lie is recast into a positive sense).
Although this tripartite framework is heuristic, its value for the exami-nation of the truth/lie thematic is twofold: it clarifies the essential problems in Nietzsches philosophical treatment and application of this theme which upon a cursory analysis appear confused and unproductive while at the same time providing a perspective that foregrounds the cumulative effect of his thought a dissolution of the conventional semantic integrity distinguishing truth from lie. This paper examines the semantic innovation in Nietzsches truth/lie thematic, an approach that calls into question the positions of interpretation adopted in his philosophy.