As a society, we have become so accustomed to metaphors and empty truths that we absent-mindedly accept them. But if society is told a lie and believes it, does that turn the lie into the truth? For example, in the beginning of the human’s reign on this planet, humans thought the earth was flat only to be proven that the earth was in fact round. But if ordinary humans were told that the earth is flat and they accept that as the truth, live their life as though it is true, then what makes it untrue?
Someone must come along to convince the population that their truth, the earth is round, a valid and have it be accepted. Nietzsche mostly talks about how man deciphers truth in his essay; however Nietzsche cannot avoid mentioning lying because in reality, lies and truth are very intertwined with each other. In fact, there are times when the truth and lies are so entangled that there are indecipherable from one another. If there is such a thin line between lies and truth, why do we lie rather than tell the truth?
What exactly is the difference between someone who knows they are lying and someone who lies unknowingly? What is the difference between a different perception and a lie? In Friedrich Nietzsche’s essay, “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense,” he determines that language, and therefore human knowledge, is a construction of metaphors and concepts. Language is designed in order to allow individuals to understand their world and come up with what they believe to be “truth” when in all actuality; truth cannot be defined because it is based on ones personal knowledge of the world.
The Essay on Earth Day and Human Evolution: The Humbling of Humans
The celebration of Earth Day marks a stage in the development of human global awareness and thus an important step, however small or tentative, in sustained human evolution. Earth Day is all about us, as a specie, trying to reconnect with the environment that has allowed us to evolve and continues to provides us with the spatial and material context within which we continuously learn and thus ...
Nietzsche says, “[the truth] in short, [is] a sum of human relations which have been poetically and rhetorically intensified, transferred, and embellished, and which, after long usage, seem to a people to be fixed, canonical, and binding. ” (Nietzsche, 455) To me, truth reminds me a stories that have been passed done throughout generations but as they get passed down, the story changes just a little bit. Everything that we believe to be a truth is a mere representation. It is a word or definition that has been designated to represent the original thing.
Overtime, these designations have become permanently engraved into our lives and become accepted as “truths”. We forget that these words and definitions have been created as representations. Nietzsche says “Truths are illusions which we have forgotten are illusions. ” (Nietzsche, 455) Nietzsche finds that he believes that exact truth does not exist. There is no whole truth for society. However, its seems that there can be truth but it can only operate individually because everyone’s idea of truth is different. When someone believes their own truth, their truths become their reality.
So your own definition of what is “truth” is based upon your perception of the concepts, supported by your life experiences and the knowledge you have retained throughout your life. This is when truth starts to become individualized and varies from person to person. There is also quite a distinction between a lie and a difference in opinion. When two people disagree on a subject and argue why they think that they are right, one will often accuse the other of making something up or lying about certain aspects of the argument. However, when two onions collide, neither party should accuse the other of being false.
Both parties are equally right and wrong because obviously in the individuals own view of what is real, their opinion is true. But when observing both opposing parties, they are wrong because their opinions don’t agree. Nietzsche believes truth is dependent on an individual’s perception. “It is even a difficult thing for him to admit to himself that the insect or the bird perceives an entirely different world from the one that the man does, and that the questions of which of these perceptions of the world is the more correct one is quite meaningless?
The Essay on See the Truth, Perceive the Lie
Nietzsche explains nature as an overall relative to humans; he proposes a potent and significant explanation of the development of language and the realization of concepts. He achieves this by exploiting the successive effects on human awareness. He suggests that originally humans were “an artistically creating subject” as he puts it. Whose essential human determination is the ...
But in any case it seems to me hat ? the correct perception’ ? which would mean ? adequate expression of an object in the subject’ ? is a contradictory impossibility. ” (Nietzsche, 457) This is why truth must be based on an individual level because if you get too many people involved in the definition of what is real and what is not, the opinions clash and then there is absolutely no truth. But then, if truth is determined individually, what is the difference between a lie and the truth?
My own example of lying would be if I said I was born in Russia, when in my own reality, or what is true in my own head, I know was born in Connecticut and purposely contradict myself. Based upon Nietzsche’s essay, lying is when you are purposely going against your own personal truths, or what you believe to be true. “The liar is a person who uses the valid designations, the words, inorder to make something which is unreal appear to be real. He says, for example, ? I am rich’, when the proper designation for his condistion would be ? poor’.
He misuses fixed conventions by means of arbitary substitutions or even reversals of names. If he does this in a selfish and moreover harmful manner, society will cease to trust him and thereby exclude him. ” (Nietzsche, 453) In the movie Freaks, one woman’s lies disrupts the entire circus environment. Cleopatra, a trapeze artist, marries a midget, Hans, solely because she finds out he is extremely wealthy and she wants a part in the inheritance. Cleopatra does not love Hans at all. In fact, behind the midget’s back she has an affair with a strong man Hercules (also average height).
The two make fun of all the circus performers they have deems as “freaks”. Cleo goes against what she really believes (that Hans is a freak and she really could care less about him) and lies to Hans, and to almost everyone around her. She creates an elaborate ruse, pretending that she loves Hans despite their height difference and wouldn’t do anything to hurt him. This of course is a lie because it contradicts what she actually believes; she is disgusted with Hans and his appearance, and betrays him.
The Essay on Informal Fallacy Lie Truth People
Is There Any Informal Fallacy That One Might Be Justified In Using, Or Is One Ethically Bound Never To Mislead Others On Purpose Discuss This Question With Reference To Specific Fallacies. In order to determine whether a fallacy can be justified in using or is ethically wrong, one must examine the specific situation they are in and must study the consequences which they might face. Informal ...
She tries to kill Hans with poison in order to inherit his fortune, and in the end is discovered lying by Hans and his friends. They attack Cleo with the purpose or eradicating and permanently excluding her from their group. Cleo is a very typical liar; she lies in order to enhance her life for the better, even if she must betray someone’s trust. Most people lie with a hidden agenda. There are many reasons and motivations for lying. For instance, Cleo the trapeze artist wanted to get rich fast and lied in order to get what she wanted.
People lie because they think that if they just say what they believe, they would not get the desired result. They lie because it is a means to an end, or in other words, something that you are not interested in but that you do because it will help you to achieve something else. Politicians and lawyers lie all the time to achieve the desired result, mostly in order to win a case or further their careers. Husbands who cheat on their wives, or vice versus, lie in order to get out of trouble; in order to stay with their significant other. Children also lie to get out of trouble.
I know as a young child I would blame broken objects on my younger brother, so that my parents would not be mad at me. Lying can also be a criminal characteristic, as people who do bad things usually do not want to face the repercussions of their actions, so they try and lie to get out of court charges. Lying can become a survival instinct. The world is survival of the fittest, and if you aren’t the fittest, you can lie to enable yourself to become one of the survivors. These kinds of liars know that they are liar and are trying to convince an outsider that their lies are truths.
However, what is the difference between those who go against their morals and personal truths on purpose to gain a desired result and those who are lying but believe their lies to be true? “Pathological liars, or ? mythomaniacs,’ may be suffering from histrionic personality disorder or narcissistic personality disorder. ” (Grubin) A pathological liar lies in order to impress other, or in order to seem better than others. However, a pathological liar constructs their own reality around themselves, and may not realize that they are making up false truths.
The Essay on White Lie Truth Friend Situation
... one has the option to lie in order to benefit themselves? Should they tell the truth even though by doing so ... person. Ironically, even though you " re in fact lying to "your friend" you are actually being a good ... for a couple of months already. As any other true friend would do, you'd be at the hospital ... bad people who are untrustworthy and nobody likes a liar. So, the question is, if you " re caught ...
But if they believe their lies to be true, and truth is based on what you believe if true, then in their own twisted way, their lies become truths in their own individual reality. The truth and the lie are intertwined and although I may consider something to be true, and you believe it to be a lie, it doesn’t change what is true in my own reality. Therefore, it is very hard to be able to tell when someone is deliberately lying and trying to deceive you versus whether someone considers something to be the truth and you disagree and believe it to be a lie. It gets very hard to trust anything anyone says.
Every strain of thought we have is put through a filter in our minds and we base our opinions, truths, and lies on the personal biases we have learned throughout our lives. You cannot tell by surface value alone who is the liar, the criminal, or the monster. You cannot trust everything people say. Opinions and truths must be formed through experience and time, as you try to get to know someone better. In the end there is no true or false, no black and white differentiation on what is real or not. The truths and lies of each individual’s own view on reality collide to form shades of gray.
