Single Idea 24150

[catalogued under 11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 2. Understanding]

Full Idea

We have only one form of understanding - concept, the more general case that subsumes the particular case.

Gist of Idea

We can only understand through concepts, which subsume particulars in generalities

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1884-85 [1884], 26[156])

Book Reference

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Fragments from 1884-85 (v 15)', ed/tr. Loeb,P.S./Tinsley,D.F. [Stanford 2022], p.173


A Reaction

This is precisely Aristotle's problem with scientific explanation - that we aim to understand each particular, but accounts and definitions have to be expressed with universals.