About the pathos of truth
An essay by Friedrich Nietzsche from 1872 is about the pathos of truth and is part of his early work.
History and content
About the Pathos of Truth was written in 1872 and was intended to serve as a foreword to a book that was never written. Nietzsche, however, put together "five prefaces to five unwritten books", which he gave Cosima Wagner as a Christmas present "with heartfelt admiration and in response to oral and written questions" in December 1872 . The titles of the five prefaces are:
- About the pathos of truth
- Thoughts about the future of our educational institutions
- The Greek state
- The relationship of Schopenhauer's philosophy to a German culture
- Homer's competition
Nietzsche begins the first preface with reflections on the subject of fame. He describes the conflict between the “great” in “world history”, which necessarily deserves fame, and the “used, small, mean” that stands in its way, as a “terrible struggle of culture”. Heraclitus appears to him as an outstanding example of a philosopher who devotes his life to the search for truth , although Pythagoras and Empedocles are also briefly mentioned. For Nietzsche, Heraclitus is “the true fulfiller and finisher of that Delphic sentence ' know yourself '”. At the same time he sees misanthropic traits in him : "Because the world needs truth forever, so Heraclitus needs it forever, although he does not need it." The essay closes with a brief reference to art: "Art is more powerful than knowledge, because she wants life, and that only achieves the ultimate goal - annihilation. "
Nietzsche's essay On Truth and Lies in the Extra-Moral Sense of 1873 can be understood as a continuation of the first preface on the pathos of truth. For Volker Gerhardt , the pathos of distance is already a motif in Nietzsche's early work and its culture-creating, "because individualizing" meaning of interpersonal distancing can be recognized.
Individual evidence
- ↑ KSA 3, p. 265.
- ↑ Jacobus ALJJ Geijsen: history and justice. P. 166. Online partial view
- ^ Volker Gerhardt: Pathos of the distance . In: Joachim Ritter u. a. (Ed.): Historical dictionary of philosophy . Volume 7. Schwabe-Verlag, Basel 1989, p. 199.
literature
- Jacobus ALJJ Geijsen: History and Justice: Basic features of a philosophy of the middle in Nietzsche's early work. Walter de Gruyter, 1997.
- Volker Gerhardt: Pathos and Distance. Studies on the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Reclam, 1988.
