Man of Reason vs. Man of Intuition

Here's a ConWest response paper about Nietzsche and his ideas on science and art.

In his essay “On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense,” the German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche counters the notion that concepts are eternal and reliable. He believes, rather, that concepts are constructed by erasing differences among similar objects. Humans who believe that they can fall back upon this set of derived concepts are “men of reason” and do not realize how untruthfully they behave; Nietzsche points out that these “men of reason” are severely limited in their creativity by the cocoon of concepts in which they have chosen to wrap themselves. A far better way of living, to Nietzsche, is to be a “man of intuition” – an artist. Such a man does not hide behind the false veracity of his conceptual cocoon but rather rejoices in rearranging and distorting these concepts. In this way, he finds joy and success in life.

Before describing his concept of the “man of intuition” – the creative man – Nietzsche demonstrates the shortcomings of a “man of reason.” The convention of scientific research, just like everyday language, is constructed and mendacious, he says: “science works unceasingly at that great columbarium of concepts, the burial site of perceptions, builds ever-new, ever-higher tiers…strives above all to fill that framework which towers up to vast heights, and to fit into it in an orderly way the whole empirical world.” Science is deception disguised as truth, and it bases itself upon humanly constructed concepts that were created by ignoring distinctions among similar objects. Nietzsche believes that humans cling to this web of concepts because it seems to provide a stable structure for the intellect: “the researcher builds his hut close by the tower of science so that he can lend a hand with the building and find protection for himself beneath its already standing bulwarks.” In Nietzsche’s view, though, humans are always deceived when they believe they have found a firm foundation – no such foundation exists. Aside from being flatly untrue, this constructed web of concepts actually hinders the human intellect by forcing it, “with dull spirited industry, to show some poor individual who lusts after life the road and tools he needs.” Nietzsche’s “man of reason,” then, is one whose intellect labors for survival, and one who is trapped in a seemingly stable web of concepts because he believes, falsely, that it affords truth.

Nietzsche believes that this subjugation of the intellect into a role of rote slavery is limiting – and ultimately unnecessary. When one sheds this cocoon and comes to not rely upon concepts – even mixing and switching about the concepts for the pure fun of it – one can finally be “free” from the stifling and misleading structure of dissimulation that men have constructed. Art is where one can find this break from the strict web of concepts. The liberated intellect, according to Nietzsche, “reveals the fact that it does not require these makeshift aids of neediness, and that it is now guided, not by concepts but by intuitions [sic! I absolve all responsibility for the translator's incorrect comma usage]."

Nietzsche draws a line between artistry and lying. Just as an everyday person who creates concepts by erasing distinctions between similar objects and then falls back upon his concepts as “truth” is being deceitful, so is a “man of intuition” who scrambles and mixes these concepts. The difference between these two men is simple: the artist’s deception is purposeful and does no harm, while the ordinary man’s conceptual and unintentional deception limits creativity and is therefore harmful both to personal happiness and to civilization as a whole.

Creativity, Nietzsche states, is an integral component of a successful civilization: “Where the man of intuition, as was once the case in ancient Greece, wields his weapons more mightily and victoriously than his contrary, a culture can take shape, given favorable conditions." Deception for fun, rather than deception for harm, is the way to joy and cultural advancement. The man of intuition does not trick himself into believing he has found truth when he has really just fallen back upon the web of concepts he himself created; rather, he rejoices in the scrambling of these false concepts with the knowledge that he is not trying to be truthful. The artist, according to Nietzsche, understands that this elusive truth is impossible to grasp with constructed concepts; even more importantly, he accepts that his concepts are untruthful. The liberated man of intuition finds joy and creative expression when he arrives at this insight.