Perspectivist ontology and de re knowledge
pp. 39-46
in: Babette Babich (ed), Nietzsche, epistemology, and philosophy of science II, Berlin, Springer, 1999Abstract
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
