• Log In

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

Subscribe on Android Spotify Google Podcasts audible patreon
  • Home
  • Podcast
    • PEL Network Episodes
    • Publicly Available PEL Episodes
    • Paywalled and Ad-Free Episodes
    • PEL Episodes by Topic
    • Nightcap
    • Philosophy vs. Improv
    • Pretty Much Pop
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • (sub)Text
    • Phi Fic Podcast
    • Combat & Classics
    • Constellary Tales
  • Blog
  • About
    • PEL FAQ
    • Meet PEL
    • About Pretty Much Pop
    • Philosophy vs. Improv
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • Meet Phi Fic
    • Listener Feedback
    • Links
  • Join
    • Become a Citizen
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Log In
  • Donate
  • Store
    • Episodes
    • Swag
    • Everything Else
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • My Account
  • Contact
  • Mailing List

A Brief Guide to Nietzsche’s “On Truth and Lie in the Extra-Moral Sense”

August 9, 2012 by Wes Alwan 4 Comments


A Brief Guide to
Nietzsche's On
Truth and Lie
in the Extra-
Moral Sense

For our episode on Nietzsche's On Truth and Lie in the Extra-Moral Sense, I've created a guide that you'll find here.

Here's an excerpt from the Introduction:

Introduction

Nietzsche’s question in On Truth and Lie in the Extra-Moral Sense is how a drive for truth could ever have arisen when the purpose of our intellects is the development of social strategies for survival, strategies that are grounded in various forms of deception and self-deception (including the “forgetting” of our own impulses). What does Nietzsche mean by “drive for truth,” and what does it mean for some truths (and lies) to be “extra-moral” or “nonmoral”?

 

Nonmoral truths turn out to stand in opposition to the drive for truth, despite the fact that they are implicated in its origins. We seek nonmoral truths initially for the sake of survival – for their “pleasant, life-affirming consequences”; and subsequently as part of the more positive “celebration of life” that we see in artistic activity. By contrast, the drive for truth involves scientific and philosophical pretensions to absolute truths that are “beyond human life” – which is to say not relativized to our limited cognitive capacities and interests.  They are moralized just to the extent that they posit values that serve some purpose other than life and seek something that transcends the objects of our biologically conditioned impulses, whether “the good” (in our ethical concerns) or absolute truth (in our scientific and philosophical pursuits). In Kantian terms (and we shall see that Nietzsche’s epistemology in this essay is heavily influenced by Kant): nonmoral truths concern the appearances – and acknowledge them as such – whereas the drive to truth seeks and confuses the appearances with things-in-themselves (leading to various sorts of errors). So the drive for truth here looks something like Kant’s Reason before its excesses have been curtailed by critique.

For more, click here.

-- Wes Alwan

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Filed Under: General Announcements Tagged With: Nietzsche, on truth and lie in the extra-moral sense, on truth and lies in the nonmoral sense

Comments

  1. Laura says

    August 12, 2012 at 6:09 pm

    This is so wonderful and helpful Wes. I d/l your guide and it is really well put together. Thank you. I am very interested in the ethics of lying and delving deeper into readings about it and finding more disappointment in Kant than I ever thought I would. When is episode 61 coming out?

    Reply
    • Mark Linsenmayer says

      August 12, 2012 at 6:14 pm

      Monday probably.

      Reply
  2. Wes Alwan says

    August 15, 2012 at 6:49 pm

    Thanks Laura! The episode is now out.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. The Power Of Words: How We Use Language To Justify Our Consumption Of Nature | Exposing the Big Game says:
    March 11, 2019 at 2:19 pm

    […] for things, and this legislation of language likewise establishes the first laws of truth.” [On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense, 1873]. We can’t speak truth without submitting to authority (the dictionary) by which we agree […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

PEL Live Show 2023

Brothers K Live Show

Citizenship has its Benefits

Become a PEL Citizen
Become a PEL Citizen, and get access to all paywalled episodes, early and ad-free, including exclusive Part 2's for episodes starting September 2020; our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more causally; a community of fellow learners, and more.

Rate and Review

Nightcap

Listen to Nightcap
On Nightcap, listen to the guys respond to listener email and chat more casually about their lives, the making of the show, current events and politics, and anything else that happens to come up.

Subscribe to Email Updates

Select list(s):

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Support PEL

Buy stuff through Amazon and send a few shekels our way at no extra cost to you.

Tweets by PartiallyExLife

Recent Comments

  • Evan Hadkins on Ep. 309: Wittgenstein On Certainty (Part Two)
  • Bibliophile on Pretty Much Pop #143: Pinocchio the Unfilmable (Yet Frequently Filmed)
  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 302: Erasmus Praises Foolishness (Part Two)
  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 308: Moore’s Proof of Mind-Independent Reality (Part Two for Supporters)
  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 201: Marcus Aurelius’s Stoicism with Ryan Holiday (Citizen Edition)

About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don’t have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we’re talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion

Become a PEL Citizen!

As a PEL Citizen, you’ll have access to a private social community of philosophers, thinkers, and other partial examiners where you can join or initiate discussion groups dedicated to particular readings, participate in lively forums, arrange online meet-ups for impromptu seminars, and more. PEL Citizens also have free access to podcast transcripts, guided readings, episode guides, PEL music, and other citizen-exclusive material. Click here to join.

Blog Post Categories

  • (sub)Text
  • Aftershow
  • Announcements
  • Audiobook
  • Book Excerpts
  • Citizen Content
  • Citizen Document
  • Citizen News
  • Close Reading
  • Combat and Classics
  • Constellary Tales
  • Exclude from Newsletter
  • Featured Ad-Free
  • Featured Article
  • General Announcements
  • Interview
  • Letter to the Editor
  • Misc. Philosophical Musings
  • Nakedly Examined Music Podcast
  • Nakedly Self-Examined Music
  • NEM Bonus
  • Not School Recording
  • Not School Report
  • Other (i.e. Lesser) Podcasts
  • PEL Music
  • PEL Nightcap
  • PEL's Notes
  • Personal Philosophies
  • Phi Fic Podcast
  • Philosophy vs. Improv
  • Podcast Episode (Citizen)
  • Podcast Episodes
  • Pretty Much Pop
  • Reviewage
  • Song Self-Exam
  • Supporter Exclusive
  • Things to Watch
  • Vintage Episode (Citizen)
  • Web Detritus

Follow:

Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | Apple Podcasts

Copyright © 2009 - 2023 · The Partially Examined Life, LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Copyright Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in