I've just come across a wonderful quotation in Arthur C. Danto's book Nietzsche as Philosopher. I'm only part way through the book, by the way, but I find it very helpful, even though Danto is too enamoured of Logical Positivism for my taste. Unfortunately, this tends to make his insights rather anachronistic, given that Positivism is no longer en vogue. Danto rescues Nietzsce from the accusation that he is merely an intellectual hooligan, endlessly expanding the meaning of words then crashing them back to what they were in order to expose their limitations. Apparently, Nietzsche regarded himself as someone who went about the business of philosophy "with a hammer." There's some truth in this, but Danto succeeds in showing the underlying seriousness of Nietzsche's lifework.
Anyway, here's the quotation. It does not just apply to Nietzsche.
His language would have been less colorful had he known what he was trying to say...
Amen to that!
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