Bertrand Russell vs Friedrich Nietzsche on Truth
Bertrand Russell and Friedrich Nietzsche on truth, side by side — 4 passages against 4, and what the disagreement is actually about.
Bertrand Russell and Friedrich Nietzsche both have a great deal to say about truth — 4 passages and 4 respectively in thinkr's library — and they do not say the same thing. Setting them side by side is more useful than reading either alone, because the disagreement shows you what each position is actually giving up.
Bertrand Russell on truth
British logician, philosopher, and public intellectual. Co-author of Principia Mathematica, and later a passionate voice for peace and free thought.
“I do wish I believed in the life eternal, for it makes me quite miserable to think man is merely a kind of machine endowed, unhappily for himself, with consciousness.”
“Ironclads and Maxim guns must be the ultimate arbiters of metaphysical truth.”
“Of all evils of war the greatest is the purely spiritual evil: the hatred, the injustice, the repudiation of truth, the artificial conflict.”
“No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other.”
Friedrich Nietzsche on truth
German philosopher who challenged received morality and proclaimed the death of God. Asked what it would take to affirm life unconditionally — eternal recurrence.
“Here the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire.”
“Style ought to prove that one believes in an idea; not only that one thinks it but also feels it.”
“May I really say it! All truths are bloody truths to me—take a look at my previous writings.”
“This is the antinomy: Insofar as we believe in morality we pass sentence on existence.”
Where they part
UK, 1872–1970 and Germany, 1844–1900 are not the same world, and the difference is not only historical. Bertrand Russell treats truth as something to be i do wish I believed in… — a matter of practice. Friedrich Nietzsche approaches it from another side entirely. Neither is refuting the other; they are answering slightly different questions, and noticing which question you are actually asking is most of the work.