Single Idea 4537

[catalogued under 11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 1. Knowledge]

Full Idea

If we do not know what knowledge is, we cannot possibly answer the question of whether there is knowledge.

Gist of Idea

We can't know whether there is knowledge if we don't know what it is

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §530)

Book Reference

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Will to Power', ed/tr. Kaufmann,W /Hollingdate,R [Vintage 1968], p.286


A Reaction

Obviously Nietzsche is pessimistic about the prospects here, but this is a motto for the whole modern analysis of knowledge, and (besides) we have lots of things (like a concept of identity) which we can't define.