Abstract:
Although Nietzsche’s philosophy had a strong influence on Said’s thought, this influence has received so far little critical attention. The aim of this paper is to remedy this lack by focusing particularly on the several analogies that link Nietzsche’s perspectivism to Said’s claim, in his well-known book Orientalism, that there can be no true representation of anything, since every representation implies an interpretation, which is itself a rebuilding of the object of the interpretation. The last part of the paper is devoted to show that, despite their understanding of human knowledge as perspectival, neither Nietzsche nor Said defend a radical epistemological relativism.
Keywords:
interpretation; Orientalism; perspectivism; relativism; representation; truth