Nietzsche on the Value of Truth (Ken Gemes)

Nietzsche claims that with the rejection of religious underpinning of the value of truth (e.g. truth as God’s word and as something absolute), we can now raise the question of why and to what extent we should value truth. He argues that our need for meaning conflicts with our will to truth because such a will tends to destroy all mythologies including the mythology of value – our will to truth reveals that values are not objectively 'out there' in the world, but are merely our own projections onto the world. This knowledge eviscerates the world of meaning. This does not mean that Nietzsche rejects the value of truth. He instead rejects the notion, inherited from the Judeo-Christian worldview, that truth is an unconditional value. Such a notion of truth, destructive of all myth and meaning, is unliveable. The very claim that the truth is valuable, even if not unconditionally valuable, is itself one of those myths that help give life meaning.

You can find the previous talk of Ken Gemes on Nietzsche here:    • Nietzsche on Nihilism & the Death of ...  

This is a re-upload from the other channel. Note, the audio has been slightly improved.

More Nietzsche:    • Nietzsche  

00:00 Talk
46:53 Q&A

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