Nietzsche Blog

 

“The Truth is Out There”

 

“The judgment ‘good’ does not derive from those to whom ‘goodness’ is shown!  Rather the ‘good’ themselves—that is, the noble, the powerful, the superior, and the high-minded were the ones who felt themselves and their actions to be good—that is, as of first rank—and posited them as such in contrast to everything low, low-minded, common, and plebian”(12).

 

In this statement Nietzsche lays out his poststructuralist argument that there are no essential morals or “good” people and “evil” or bad people only interpretations of these terms as constructed by people.  There are no essences to these terms or these people instead they are given meaning through historical and cultural connotations—connotations derived from power.  In the above quotation it is obvious too that Nietzsche believes that those in power have the ability to construct these meanings in their favor so that they define themselves as “good” or “moral” people because of their positions of power.  Nietzsche also asserts on the next page (13) that the power to name those who are “bad” is held by those who have the power to define themselves as “good” and “moral” people. 

 

Nietzsche uses a genealogical method in order to trace how the connotations of “good” and “bad,” “moral,” and evil have changed depending on cultural and political circumstances.  In doing this Nietzsche details the fact that there is no inherent truth in the meaning of “good” and “bad” but that the truth is constructed depending on the circumstance.  Prior to reading this I had only skimmed over a bit of Nietzschean philosophy never understanding its purpose.  Now I see how Nietzsche is a pivotal text for French post-structuralism.  Post-structuralism’s basis lies at the idea that there is no inherent truth or essences within human beings, but that we are instead products of both discourse and bodily positionality (as I think Nietzsche alludes to in the idea of “slave mentality.)  Bodies are positioned within discourse and language and the ways in which these bodies are constructed determines whether they are imbued with power or are marginalized and lack power.  But there is no truth of these bodies; instead they are constructed as true, as good, or as evil and bad.   

 

This may be a trite example because it does not necessarily deal with marginalization of bodily positionalities--but instead marginalization of ideas—and the ways in which truth becomes constructed as Truth or allows for a multiplicity of truths. This example looks at how true is/are Truth/truths.   The television show the X-Files is a prime example of how truth is constructed and posits that there may be many versions of truths to be uncovered.  The show focuses on the characters of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully as two FBI agents faced with a list of unsolved cases known as the X-Files-the secret files, or the files nobody else is interested in dealing with.  Mulder believes in the possibility of extra-terrestrial life, that new-aged monsters exist, and that some people possess super human powers-things that cannot be explained through any conventional means.  He is obsessed with uncovering the Truth of these matters, in fact a poster in his office reads, “I Want To Believe,” with a flying saucer in the background.  Mulder wants to believe that there is something out there to believe in other than what he or anyone else has been told. Scully is assigned to be Mulder’s partner because she is a medical doctor and she is supposed to disprove all of Mulder’s findings through positivist medical science.  Scully believes that science can prove the Truth in any situation that there are always, Always, ALWAYS scientific reasons for the things they encounter.  Until she begins to experience some inexplicable phenomena of her own, experiences, which cannot be explained through positivistic science. 

 

Along with Nietzsche, Mulder believes that the people in power, mainly in the government, have possessed the power to construct the truth, the reality that we believe in everyday.  He believes that the government is in secret possession of proof of alien life forms and other conspiracies that have harmed the American people.  In this sense those in power try to retain an image of “goodness” or “morality” while making Mulder look like a fraud or someone who is bad or at least doing “bad” and unnecessary work.  While Mulder does not believe in the precise method of truth that science can uncover he does believe that there is a Truth lying in the Department of Defense, Roswell, the sky.  Somewhere there is Truth among the lies.  There is Good or Light among the Evil or the Darkness.  To Nietzsche there is no Truth, only interpretations of experiences and bodies through discourse and language.  There is no Truth lying in a building (the Pentagon) or even in someone’s head (Cigarette Smoking Man) because those truths can only be understood through our interpretations of them.

 

I too agree with Nietzsche that there is not one Truth but many variations of truths, that truth is influenced by society, culture, and politics, and history.  There is no one Truth to search for and uncover but many truths, many experiences, many interpretations that are valid and important to know about.  Morality, goodness and evil like truth also have various interpretations depending on who is in the power to construct these terms.  If we associate morality with Truth than we assume that only those experiences deemed “good” or “moral” are True-leaving out a variety of other experiences.  For communication researchers it is important to recognize that Truth may not exist, that we may never “get to the bottom” of something completely-especially not with numbers or science.  Instead we have to listen to the diverse and varied stories of experiences, whether they are of UFOs or marginalized subject positions in order to uncover truths-truths that are subjective yet potentially shared among groups of people sharing similar experiences. 

 

I include this clip just to give a sort of synopsis of the show.  There is also a very interesting quote in the middle where a sort of philosopher-scientist says, “Truth is as subjective as reality,” and I feel that this really helps to sum up at least a bit of what Nietzsche’s poststructuralist argument is.