The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
533.
Logical accuracy, transparency, considered as the criterion of truth ("_omne illud verum est, quod clare et distincte percipitur._"--Descartes): by this means the mechanical hypothesis of the world becomes desirable and credible. But this is gross confusion: like _simplex sigillum veri._ Whence comes the knowledge that the real nature of things stands in _this_ relation to our intellect? Could it not be otherwise? Could it not be this, that the hypothesis which gives the intellect the greatest feeling of power and security, is _preferred, valued,_ and marked as _true_--The intellect sets its _freest_ and _strongest faculty_ and _ability_ as the criterion of what is most valuable, consequently of what is _true...._ "True"--from the standpoint of sentiment--is that which most provokes sentiment ("I"); from the standpoint of thought--is that which gives thought the greatest sensation of strength; from the standpoint of touch, sight, and hearing--is that which calls forth the greatest resistance. Thus it is the _highest degrees of activity_ which awaken belief in regard to the _object_, in regard to its "reality." The sensations of strength, struggle, and resistance convince the subject that there is something which is being resisted. The criterion of truth lies in the enhancement of the feeling of power.
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