Nietzschem

Last semester I read several various philosophical texts for my English class, one of which was Nietzsche's "Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense." In this text, Nietzsche explores the possibility that one person's perception of the world could be totally different from another's. For example, one person may see blue as red, green as purple, and so on; however, we would never be able to detect these perceptual variations because words, such as names of colors, are simply metaphors for our perception of things and concepts, and we cannot see through other's eyes. I have always wondered about this, even when I was a child. I've always wondered about the possibility that the reality I'm experiencing could be vastly different from anyone else's reality. Pondering this also guided my thoughts to how everything is controlled by language; for example, we all know what a dog is, but this is only because we have accepted the connection made between the word "dog" and the actual physical animal. The word that identifies the thing, whatever it may be, is not part of the thing's essence because, if this were true, Nietzsche says there would not be so many different languages. As I previously stated, according to Nietzsche, language is ultimately nothing more than metaphors for things and concepts. This theory really got me to look at things with a new perspective. That's what I enjoy about philosophy, it makes you see the world differently; and in my opinion, that can be very humbling.