In less than 10 pages, Nietzsche provides a profound argument that re-evaluates the relationship between humanity and the universe around them. In a sense, he seeks to put humanity and their intellectual endeavors “in its place”, in contradistinction to the ideology of his time (still persisting to this day) which places the human as the main character of the universe, equipped with a wholly unique intelligence that allows them to discover the universe’s “hidden truths”.

 

When we talk about Truth, it is always framed in such a way as to make it seem as if we are discovering something that was previously hidden from us: e.g., we say that Einstein “discovered” the theory of general relativity or that Darwin “discovered” the theory of evolution, and so on. It is as if these truths were always there and the scientist is a kind of archeologist digging them up with the power of his own thought. It is very reminiscent of Plato’s forms, where the individual objects that compose our world are only copies or imperfect imitations of some perfect and ideal form, existing in some immaterial realm that only our intellect and rationality is able to grasp. And Nietzsche seeks to invert this relationship. For him, the reality of a thing is not an imperfect imitation of its ideal form, but the direct opposite: the concept of a leaf, for example, is only an abstraction from the infinitely many nuances of several actually-existing leaves, that not only our language is unable to identify and differentiate, but even our very sense of perception.

 

Against the idea that human intelligence is uniquely apt for the “discovery” of Truth, Nietzsche reminds us that we are animals that have been (and still are) subjected to the same evolutionary forces as all other animals, which thus means human intelligence exists only by serving a practical function. An intelligence which is only able to formulate Truths, that is only able to perfectly represent the world before us as an idea, is altogether useless: we already have actual leaves in nature, why would we need a copy of them existing as an idea in the minds of humans? Human beings are not the strongest animals, nor the fastest, nor the most resilient. On a physical level, human beings are incredibly unremarkable and weak creatures, even compared to our fellow primates. But our intelligence which manifests in our cunningness, our inventiveness, and our creativity given the circumstances–and not our cautiousness to perfectly represent and discover the Truth of whatever lies before us–is what allows us to dominate and overcome our struggles.

 

And this is perhaps one of the main points Nietzsche is getting at: that human intellectual endeavors towards Truth are not opposed or superior to, or even distinct from human intellectual endeavors towards creating myth or art. Both are manifestations of human power to dominate their environment and overcome their struggles. Both emerge out of an innate drive (existing as a result of our intelligence) to superimpose upon reality an entire layer of fictional abstractions that do not exist outside our minds nor are important to anyone except ourselves. Our culture glorifies what Nietzsche calls the “rational” person who, from a non-human outsider’s perspective, is only a person entirely invested in and lead by their own intellectual creations. They navigate the world believing their ideas are more real than the world itself, even though they are–to put it bluntly–so far up their own ass they can’t even see the light of reality anymore. In contrast to them is the intuitive person, who relying solely on their immediate impulses to navigate the world. They are present in it at every moment. They are not interested in perfect representation or the Truth about things as their intellectual and even real endeavors involve only to imprint themselves upon the world before them, to make art out of the world. The rational person cautiously navigates reality in order to minimize pain and maximize their own happiness, for they are only led by “pure” representations of reality. The intuitive person violently confronts reality and stubbornly tries to establish their presence upon it. They are both nevertheless differing manifestations of human power in the world before them, neither are innately superior to or distinct from the other.