Abstract

This paper examines what Nietzsche might mean by the proposition that “values are created”. It further raises the issue whether there is a hard problem of value creation analogous to the “hard problem” in the philosophy of mind. Nietzsche could be seen as a philosopher who tried to shift people’s views about values away from any realist-objectivist intuitions. He was optimistic that these views could be eliminated, and that eventually most or all would come to conceive of values as created. It is shown that Nietzsche rejects value realism in favour of a compelling antirealist conception of value, which he takes to be superior due to one specific property of values, their “aliveness”. If there is a hard problem of value, however, and for the realist any created value simply does not count as a value, it is unclear if Nietzsche’s conception is constructive