(This short entry is a preamble to the entry Nietzsche And The Jews.)
…Who is a bigot? One who looks at the world through a rigid prism that channels a deliberate single angle of vision, refusing to take in the sides which do not confirm to the said angle. Whether he realizes it or not, a bigot is an intellectually dishonest person, and therefore a liar, according to one of our definitions of truth, equating truth to intellectual honesty. He is a liar not necessarily because of telling lies (in fact, he could be actually “telling the truth” on occasion), but because he misrepresents it as the only truth in existence, due to his deliberate suppression of all other aspects of the thing in question. (As the British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead puts it: “There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil.”)
…Was Nietzsche a bigot, as some allege? Even a question like this is ridiculous. He was a philosopher par excellence. Granted, he did have some pet ideas, but he never had an agenda, and never looked at the world through a one-dimensional prism. In fact, he often contradicted himself and his pet ideas exactly because he saw things from whichever side was open to his mental eye at that particular moment, and courageously (or recklessly, as someone will say who cares more about reputation than intellectual honesty) let the chips fall where they may.
It is very easy to besmirch an intellectually honest person by quoting him out of context or by pulling out an isolated phrase reflecting a very negative view of something, while suppressing a host of other phrases that reflect very positively on that same something. Incidentally, those who engage in this kind of “selection” are among the worst type of bigots themselves…
Being controversial is inimical to being a bigot. In fact, bigots are never really controversial, but consistent, and even trite, in their predictable bigotry. On the other hand, an honest thinker whose honesty has made him many enemies has probably the biggest chance of being branded a bigot, as there must surely be more than enough out-of-context quotes of him that are “politically incorrect.” Just because an honest thinker is never “politically correct”…
Nietzsche was a consummate honest thinker. He was always politically incorrect, and never a bigot.
…Who is a bigot? One who looks at the world through a rigid prism that channels a deliberate single angle of vision, refusing to take in the sides which do not confirm to the said angle. Whether he realizes it or not, a bigot is an intellectually dishonest person, and therefore a liar, according to one of our definitions of truth, equating truth to intellectual honesty. He is a liar not necessarily because of telling lies (in fact, he could be actually “telling the truth” on occasion), but because he misrepresents it as the only truth in existence, due to his deliberate suppression of all other aspects of the thing in question. (As the British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead puts it: “There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil.”)
…Was Nietzsche a bigot, as some allege? Even a question like this is ridiculous. He was a philosopher par excellence. Granted, he did have some pet ideas, but he never had an agenda, and never looked at the world through a one-dimensional prism. In fact, he often contradicted himself and his pet ideas exactly because he saw things from whichever side was open to his mental eye at that particular moment, and courageously (or recklessly, as someone will say who cares more about reputation than intellectual honesty) let the chips fall where they may.
It is very easy to besmirch an intellectually honest person by quoting him out of context or by pulling out an isolated phrase reflecting a very negative view of something, while suppressing a host of other phrases that reflect very positively on that same something. Incidentally, those who engage in this kind of “selection” are among the worst type of bigots themselves…
Being controversial is inimical to being a bigot. In fact, bigots are never really controversial, but consistent, and even trite, in their predictable bigotry. On the other hand, an honest thinker whose honesty has made him many enemies has probably the biggest chance of being branded a bigot, as there must surely be more than enough out-of-context quotes of him that are “politically incorrect.” Just because an honest thinker is never “politically correct”…
Nietzsche was a consummate honest thinker. He was always politically incorrect, and never a bigot.
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