If Nothing Is True, Is Everything Permitted? Nihilism and Immoralism in the Late Nietzsche

Abstract

In past years, the maxim «Nothing is true, everything is permitted» has been interpreted as summarizing the essential meaning of Nietzsche’s philosophy. However, the same maxim appears only twice in the published texts. Thus, to what extent is this interpretation justified? Did Nietzsche really affirm that if nothing is true, everything is permitted? In which sense? In what follows, I will seek to provide an answer to these questions. To this aim, in the first part of the paper I will consider the textual evidence (published writings and posthumous fragments), contextualizing each single occurrence of the maxim and explaining its meaning. In the second part of the paper, I will consider the question of whether, regardless of the way in which Nietzsche makes use of the maxim in his writings and notes, it is possible to claim that, according to Nietzsche, if nothing is true, then everything is permitted.