Nietzsches Naturalist Deconstruction of Truth: A World Fragmented in Late Nineteenth-Century Epistemology offers a new interpretation of Nietzsches discussions of truth and knowledge, covering the period from his early essay On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense to his late notebooks. It places these discussions in the context of the neo-Kantian, Naturalist, Positivist, and Pragmatic schools influential in Nietzsches late nineteenth-century Europe. Peter Bornedal argues for a view of Nietzsches epistemological thought as an elaboration of this paradigm: proposing ideas that are anti-metaphysical and anti-theological in their polemic orientation, and in general promoting new scientific naturalist ideals in the discussions of knowledge. Bornedal suggests that the rational pursuit of these new ideals to the unencumbered mind logically leads to Nihilism in its most profound epistemological sense. Nietzsches critique of metaphysics is thus seen as having sprung from sources different from and, at times, in patent opposition to more recent postmodern and deconstructionist critiques. This book contextualizes Nietzsche in relation to a number of philosophical peers and juxtaposes him to contemporary thinkers in a way that resolves some of the difficulties that have plagued recent Nietzsche scholarship.

Peter Bornedalis professor at American University of Beirut

Introduction

Part I: Nietzsches Early Theory of Truth and Knowledge

A: Part I of Truth and Lies

B: Part II of Truth and Lies

C: Human Knowledge from Truth and Lies to Human, all too Human

Part II: Nietzsches Positivist-Pragmatic Paradigm

A: Nietzsches Later Theories of Truth and Knowledge

B: Nietzsche and Critical Positivism

C. Final Assessment

Appendix

On Truth and Lies in a Non-Moral Sense

Endnotes

List of Literature

About the Author