尼采於1873年寫就的未出版論文〈論非關道德意義下的真理與謊言〉在其哲學思想的成形歷程中佔有特殊的地位，它展示了尼采早期思想中語言與詮釋、認識與真理、藝術與哲學的內在關聯性。該文主張：「隱喻」（Metapher）標誌著人類根本的詮釋活動，理性的認識能力也不外乎身體此一詮釋性的存在所引發的「構造隱喻的驅力」（Trieb zur Metapherbildung）。「隱喻」不僅是掌握尼采早期思想的關鍵概念，我們還可以它為線索來聯繫散佈在尼采早期未出版著作中的相關見解，並把這些觀點與尼采思想成熟期所提出的「權力意志」（Wille zur Macht）的理論勾連起來，以說明貫穿前後期思想發展的內在理路。因此，本文主張「隱喻」是「權力意志」的理論前身。在早期思想中「隱喻」被當成語言與思考的運作機制，到了「權力意志」則擴展為更全面的生命詮釋原理，主體的內在多元性得到了完整的表達。

Written in 1873, Nietzsche's unpublished essay ”On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense” plays a unique role in the formation of Nietzsche's thought. It shows the interrelations of language and interpretation, knowledge and truth, art and philosophy in Nietzsche's early thought. In this essay, Nietzsche claims that ”metaphor” indicates the fundamental human activities of interpretation. The knowing faculty of reason is also originated in the ”drives to build the metaphors”, which are resulted from the body-interpretative being. ”Metaphor” does not only serve as the key concept for us to probe into Nietzsche's early thought, with it, Nietzsche's seemingly sporadic ideas scattering in his early unpublished writings can be better connected. By comparing the concepts of ”metaphor” and ”will to power”, the implicit clues running through the Nietzsche's early and late thoughts will be demonstrated. Moreover, ”will to power”, as a revised notion of ”metaphor”, reveals Nietzsche's stance of his mature works. This paper suggests that ”metaphor” is the primitive model of ”will to power”. ”Metaphor” in Nietzsche's early thought is defined as a mechanism of speech and thinking. This idea is transformed into a more comprehensive interpretative principle of life, and this is what is termed ”will to power”. The internal plurality of subject is best illustrated in Nietzschean ”will to power”.