NIETZSCHE’S CRITIQUE OF METAPHYSICS LANGUAGE CONSCIOUSNESS AND KNOWLEDGE (original) (raw)

In this article it is shown how language plays a key role in Nietzsche’s conception of metaphysics. Metaphysics consists in positing a second world as the foundation of the world of becoming in which human beings live. This second world is believed to be the only one true world, namely the world of God. It is the world of eternal and immutable concepts, where everything is always the same and never changes ab aeterno; it is the opposite of the world of becoming. On the other hand, the world of becoming is thought to be an inferior world, a mere appearance. This metaphysical division into two antithetical worlds is based on language. The reason is that language – in turn – is based on the division into four main concepts: subject, object, cause and effect. Such concepts do not exist per se, they are not truths to be acknowledged and do not have any logical origin, but their origin is illogical, irrational. Indeed, they originated from the self-preservation instinct of human beings since the dawn of civilization. Nietzsche takes this stance since the early work On Truth and Lying in a Non- Moral Sense (1873). Then, he will develop this assumption in the later works, espe- cially in The Gay Science (1882) and in Twilight of the Idols (1888).