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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2010
Nietzsche's philosophy in extenso may properly be appraised as a sustained endeavour to effect a creative sublation of Western ontology—and thus to nullify the latter's aesthetic Socratic basis—as a prerequisite toward the re-establishment of the instinct-affirming property of the post-Homeric/pre-Socratic Attic tragic paideia. Hence Nietzsche is compelled to investigate art's intrinsically twofold and ostensibly self-contradictory nature; namely, (i) its proclivity to metaphysically abstract Being and (ii) its capability to bring forth a context of ontological absence. Accordingly, paramount to his interest and analysis is his conception that art (in all its manifestations) is entirely and necessarily grounded in the dynamic interplay between the two primary, antithetical but not irreconcilable artistic impulses—(i) the Apollinian and (ii) the Dionysian. As he argues in the opening lines of The Birth of Tragedy (with the apparent conviction of a missionary for the “science of aesthetics”): “The continuous development of art is bound up with the Apollinian and the Dionysian duality—just as procreation depends on the duality of the sexes, involving perpetual strife with only periodically intervening reconciliations.”
1 Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, The Birth of Tragedy, translated by Kaufmann, Walter (New York: Vintage Books, 1967), p. 33.Google Scholar It is perhaps appropriate to point out here that in this essay I rely rather heavily on The Birth of Tragedy (1872) for the principal ideas and formulations of Nietzsche's aesthetic position. By this I do not mean to imply that there is no development in Nietzsche's intellectual thought across the next 16 years, 1872–88. No; my reliance is of a more practical nature. Specifically, it is grounded in the fact that this is the only work in which he presents us with a sustained (if not a systematic) treatment of his aesthetics. Indeed, there is little in Nietzsche's later writings concerning this theme that is not either introduced or at least adumbrated in The Birth of Tragedy.
2 Ibid., “Preface to Richard Wagner,” p. 31–32.
3 Nietzsche, Friedrich, Twilight of the Idols, translated by Kaufmann, Walter, in The Portable Nietzsche (New York: Viking, 1974), p. 529.Google Scholar
4 Perhaps the only in-depth exposition of Nietzsche's understanding of art is to be found in the first volume of Heidegger's Nietzsche. However, while Heidegger therein appears to be preoccupied with art as a creative process — as it may be best seen in his Chapter 12, “Five Statements on Art” —I am concerned with creativity and aesthetics as the act of making an evaluation in general, the latter being decidedly more fundamental than art per se. Since Nietzsche never did distinguish between art and aesthetics, it is in order that we examine the essential nature of aesthetics as a conceptual model, which would include art as only a manifestation of itself.
5 It is of course not insignificant to emphasize here that during his early period, Nietzsche was opposed to the otherworldly character of Schopenhauer's views as well as those of Socrates. However, insofar as we are concerned with the primary source of Nietzsche's contra-metaphysical position — which is brilliantly stated in his The Birth of Tragedy — and to avoid a possible digression, I think it is more appropriate to concentrate upon his negation of Socrates.
6 In Beyond Good and Evil Nietzsche states (Section 9) that “Philosophy is … the most spiritual will to power” (italics mine). But this in no manner negates our proposition that “art is perhaps the most significant manifestation of that all-animate, pervasive will to power.” In fact, as Nietzsche affirms (Section 211) in the same book: “Genuine philosophers … are commanders and legislators: they say, ‘thus it shall be!’ They first determine the Whither and For What of man, and in so doing have at their disposal the preliminary labor of all philosophical laborers, all who have overcome the past. With a creative hand they reach for the future, and all that is and has been becomes a means for them, an instrument, a hammer. Their ‘knowing’ is creating, their creating is a legislation, their will to truth is — will to power.” The meaning of this passage should be clear: the creative process that is philosophy is a form of art, and in this form philosophy is a manifestation of the will to power.
7 Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, see p. 37, 40, and 112. It is difficult to maintain with much certainty whether Nietzsche's conception of truth is closer to the correspondence view or to the pragmatic. Indeed, in the light of the sceptical and not infrequently nihilistic tone of many of his statements on the matter, it is reasonable to conclude that Nietzsche was probably not too concerned with formulating a specific model of truth. At any rate, none of the hair-splitting studies on the subject is of any importance to the aim of this paper.
8 Ibid., p. 83–84.
9 Ibid., p. 86.
10 Nietzsche, Friedrich, The Will to Power, translated by Kaufmann, Walter and Hollingdale, R. J. (New York: Vintage Books, 1968), Note 809, p. 427.Google Scholar
11 Ibid., see Note 852, p. 449–451.
12 Nietzsche, Friedrich, Human, All Too Human, translated by Faber, Marion with Lehman, Stephen (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1984), p. 130.Google Scholar
13 Nietzsche, The Will to Power, Note 822, p. 435.
14 Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human, p. 109.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid., p. 110.
17 Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, p. 39.
18 Ibid., p. 91.
19 Ibid., see Section 11, p. 76–81.
20 Nietzsche, The Will to Power, Note 404, p. 219.
21 Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, p. 95.
22 Nietzsche, Friedrich, On the Genealogy of Morals, translated by Kaufmann, Walter (New York: Vintage Books, 1969), p. 84.Google Scholar
23 Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, see Section 3, p. 41–44.
24 Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human, p. 132.
25 Ibid., p. 131–132.
26 Ibid., see p. 105–106.
27 Nietzsche, Friedrich, Beyond Good and Evil, translated by Kaufmann, Walter (New York: Vintage Books, 1966), p. 71.Google Scholar
28 Ibid.
29 Nietzsche, The Will to Power, Note 815, p. 432.
30 Ibid., Note 675, p. 356. Of course, here as well as in my other references to Nietzsche's notes I am presupposing that no less emphasis should be placed on his unpublished as on his published works. It is commonly claimed that his published and unpublished writings are not infrequently in conflict with each other. However, insofar as Nietzsche intended eventually to publish these notes, one would exhibit a supercilious attitude — as well as overlook a wealth of insight — to suggest that those same texts be discounted in value.
Moreover, as I point out elsewhere (“Toward the Animation of Nietzsche's Übermensch,” Man and World, 22, 1), the contextual inconsistencies and to some degree confusion in detail that surround many of even his published, recognizably important notions, are the result of that author's notorious intellectual impatience, mercurial moods, and unpedantic style of composition, rather than the result of indecisiveness and/or doubt concerning the thrust and spirit of his overall philosophical thought.
31 Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, p. 21.
32 Ibid., see Sections 1–5, 22, 23, and 43–45.
33 Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, translated by Walter Kaufmann in the above-cited The Portable Nietzsche, “On Self-Overcoming,” p. 227.
34 Ibid., see “On the Famous Wise Men,” p. 214–217, and “The Leech,” p. 360–363.
35 Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human, p. 108–109.
36 Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, see Sections 5 and 24.
37 Ibid., p. 45.
38 Nietzsche, The Will to Power, Note 820, p. 434.
39 Ibid., Note 797, p. 419.
40 Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, p. 40.
41 Nietzsche, The Will to Power, Note 810, p. 428.
42 Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, p. 37.
43 Ibid., p. 50.
44 Ibid., p. 33.
45 Ibid., p. 37.
46 Ibid.
47 Nietzsche, The Will to Power, Note 794, p. 419.
48 Ibid., Note 853, p. 452.
49 Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human, p. 127.
50 Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, p. 529.
51 Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, p. 228.
52 Ibid., p. 199.
53 Ibid., p. 198.