Phenomenological Reviews

Book | Chapter

186683

Perspectivist ontology and de re knowledge

Robert C. Welshon

pp. 39-46

Abstract

Nietzsche deliberated, in his mature work, about a perspectivist ontology according to which the world is composed of quanta of power to each of which, and to each society of which, there is coupled a perspective. In what follows, I outline some relations between that perspectivist ontology and Nietzsche's perspectivist epistemology. But there are ambiguities here — many relations between Nietzsche's ontology and epistemology might be discussed, but only some will be discussed in this essay. One issue that will not be addressed here is the epistemological considerations that led Nietzsche to a perspectivist ontology. Another is the compatibility of a perspectivist ontology with an antecedent commitment to a perspectivist epistemology. I will instead focus on a third issue, viz., some of the drastic implications a perspectivist ontology has for de re knowledge.1

Publication details

Published in:

Babich Babette (1999) Nietzsche, epistemology, and philosophy of science II: Nietzsche and the sciences. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 39-46

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-2428-9_3

Full citation:

Welshon Robert C. (1999) „Perspectivist ontology and de re knowledge“, In: B. Babich (ed.), Nietzsche, epistemology, and philosophy of science II, Dordrecht, Springer, 39–46.