240. “Nothing is true, everything is permitted” – a very silly proposition.
“Nothing is true, everything is permitted” is the famous maxim of the novel Alamut (1938) by Vladmir Bartol which tells the story of the assassin Hassan-i Sabbah and the Order of Assassins he founded (the Hashshashin that existed in Nizari Isma’ili from 1090-1275). In the contemporary world the maxim is known to many from the video game series Assassin’s Creed. But it was referenced by Friedrich Nietzsche in his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-1885) when Zarathustra says: “‘Nothing is true, all is permitted’: so said I to myself. Into the coldest water did I plunge with head and heart. Ah, how oft did I stand there naked on that account, like a red crab!” (see the section “The Shadow”). And it has been referenced by plenty of radical thinkers, artists, musicians, and so on (I was recently reminded of it while listening to John Zorn’s work for three cellos 777 (nothing is true, everything is permitted) from his album What Thou Wilt (2010).
Having come across the maxim for many years now, and having noticed the general enthusiasm with which it is embraced by those who espouse it, I would like to finally point out how silly it really is.
After all, if nothing is true then the proposition “nothing is true, everything is permitted” cannot be true. And if that is the case then, well, perhaps something is true after all (like the claim that the maxim itself is silly). Moreover, the maxim claims everything is permitted. But that, too, can’t be right since it doesn’t permit the truth (although it can’t avoid the truth insofar as it is an assertion).
So anyone who thinks that by adopting this maxim they can be a radical thinker, or perhaps even a radical assassin, I have bad news: you are really just adopting a self-refuting proposition.