Synthetic judgment a priori#
Summary#
Nietzsche mocks Kant’s claim to have discovered the faculty of synthetic judgment a priori, arguing that explaining how such judgments are possible “by means of a faculty” is a circular non-answer comparable to explaining opium’s sleep-inducing power by its “dormitive virtue.” He contends that the proper question is not how such judgments are possible but why belief in them is necessary, suggesting they are fundamentally false judgments whose truth we must nonetheless accept for the preservation of creatures like ourselves.