[語錄]幸好為時已晚

Language as an alleged science. The importance of language for the development of culture lies in the fact that, in language, man juxtaposed to the one world another world of his own, a place which he thought so sturdy that from it he could move the rest of the world from its foundations and make himself lord over it. To the extent that he believed over long periods of time in the concepts and names of things as if they were aeternae veritates9, man has acquired that pride by which he has raised himself above the animals: he really did believe that in language he had knowledge of the world10. The shaper of language was not so modest as to think that he was only giving things labels; rather, he imagined that he was expressing the highest knowledge of things with words; and in fact, language is the first stage of scientific effort. Here, too, it is the belief in found truth from which the mightiest sources of strength have flowed. Very belatedly (only now) is it dawning on men that in their belief in language they have propagated a monstrous error. Fortunately, it is too late to be able to revoke the development of reason, which rests on that belief.

9. eternal truths
10. Cf. Nietzsche, "On Truth and Lie in the Extra-Moral Sense" (1873)

Human, All Too Human, Friedrich Nietzsche

宣稱為一種科學的語言。語言，對文化發展上的重要性在於：人類用語言在他們自己的世界架空另外一個世界。這個世界堅實牢靠得，讓人能夠把他們真實的世界建立在這個的根基上面，並且能駕馭真實世界。如此他們已經太習慣相信事物的名字和觀念，以至於把他們當做永恆的真理，人因此覺得自己有別於動物：他們相信透過語言能得到世界的知識。語言不只認為他能給事物標簽，他還以為自己能傳達最高的理念；事實上，語言是科學化的第一步。在此，這就是相信：得到的事實，是從更高的層次滲透下來的。很晚（事實上是現在）人類才瞭解他們對語言的信仰已經散播了一個嚴重的錯誤。幸運的是，要扭轉理性的發展，為時已晚。

《人性的、太人性的》弗里德里希．尼采