1001Philosophers

Friedrich Nietzsche vs Immanuel Kant on Knowledge

Kant restricts knowledge to appearances structured by the categories of the understanding, leaving things in themselves in principle unknowable. Nietzsche pushes the restriction further: there is no fixed knowing subject and no neutral standpoint from which to know, only interpretations made under conditions of power. The Kantian critique limits knowledge to what experience allows; the Nietzschean critique exposes the will to knowledge as a problem in its own right.

About this topic

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature, sources, and limits of knowledge. Philosophers have asked what distinguishes knowledge from mere opinion, whether it requires certainty or can be probabilistic, and how perception, reason, memory, and testimony each contribute. Ancient skeptics challenged the possibility of knowledge altogether, while rationalists located its source in reason and empiricists in experience. Contemporary epistemology investigates justification, reliability, and the social conditions under which beliefs count as knowing.

For a side-by-side overview of the two philosophers more broadly, see the full Friedrich Nietzsche vs Immanuel Kant comparison. To browse philosophy more widely on this theme, see the Knowledge quotes hub.

Representative quotes on knowledge

Friedrich Nietzsche on knowledge

  • “Postcard to Franz Overbeck , Sils-Maria (30 July 1881), tr. Walter Kaufmann , The Portable Nietzsche (1954)”

    I am utterly amazed, utterly enchanted! I have a precursor , and what a precursor! I hardly knew Spinoza : that I should have turned to him just now , was inspired by "instinct." Not only is his overtendency like mine—namely to make all knowledge the most powerful affect — but in five main points of his doctrine I recognize myself; this most unusual and loneliest thinker is closest to me precisely

  • “Against that positivism which stops before phenomena, saying "there are only facts," I should say: no, it is precisely facts that do not exist, only interpretations.”

    Notebooks (Late 1886 – Spring 1887) | Popular usage: "There are no facts, only interpretations.

  • “Notebooks (Late 1886 – Spring 1887)”

    Against that positivism which stops before phenomena, saying "there are only facts," I should say: no, it is precisely facts that do not exist, only interpretations.

  • “Popular usage: "There are no facts, only interpretations.”

    Against that positivism which stops before phenomena, saying "there are only facts," I should say: no, it is precisely facts that do not exist, only interpretations.

  • “In Germany there is much complaining about my "eccentricities." But since it is not known where my center is, it won't be easy to find out where or when I have thus far been "eccentric." That I was a philologist , for example, meant that I was outside my center (which fortunately does not mean that I was a poor philologist). Likewise, I now regard my having been a Wagnerian as eccentric. It was a highly dangerous experiment; now that I know it did not ruin me, I also know what significance it had for me — it was the most severe test of my character.”

    Letter to Carl Fuchs (14 December 1887)

All 9 Friedrich Nietzsche quotes on knowledge →

Immanuel Kant on knowledge

  • “All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason.”

    All human knowledge begins with intuitions, proceeds from thence to concepts, and ends with ideas.

  • “Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.”

    A 51, B 75

  • “A lecture at Königsberg (1775), as quoted in A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1946) by H. L. Mencken , p. 955”

    The wish to talk to God is absurd . We cannot talk to one we cannot comprehend — and we cannot comprehend God; we can only believe in Him. The uses of prayer are thus only subjective.

  • “A lecture at Königsberg (1775), as quoted in A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1946) by H. L. Mencken , p. 1017”

    Religion is too important a matter to its devotees to be a subject of ridicule. If they indulge in absurdities, they are to be pitied rather than ridiculed.

  • “The body is a temple.”

    A lecture at Königsberg (1775), as quoted in A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1946) by H. L. Mencken , p. 1043

All 10 Immanuel Kant quotes on knowledge →

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