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Friedrich Nietzsche vs Karl Marx on Knowledge

Marx and Nietzsche each treat what passes for knowledge in their century as an ideological cover for hidden interests, but they identify the hidden interest very differently. Marx locates it in class: the moralities and theories of bourgeois society serve to legitimate a system of exploitation. Nietzsche locates it in resentment: the same moralities are the revenge of the weak generalized as universal claims about reason, value, and truth.

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 Karl Marx 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 →

Karl Marx on knowledge

  • “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.”

    Die Philosophen haben die Welt nur verschieden interpretirt; es kommt aber darauf an, sie zu verändern.

  • “Thus heaven I’ve forfeited, I know it full well. My soul, once true to God , is chosen for hell .”

    The Pale Maiden” (1837) ballad

  • “The Pale Maiden” (1837) ballad”

    Thus heaven I’ve forfeited, I know it full well. My soul, once true to God , is chosen for hell .

  • “With disdain I will throw my gauntlet”

    Wikiquote

  • “As quoted in The Communist Manifesto (1848), p.2”

    The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles.

All 9 Karl Marx quotes on knowledge →

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