Phil 01 - Final Essay
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY
It is an amalgam of Nietzsche’s philosophy (critical) of: -ART -AESTHETICS -CULTURE -PSYCHOLOGY -RELIGION
Apollo and Dionysus
Nietzsche describes the state of Greek art before the influence of Dionysus as being naive, and concerned only with appearances. In this art conception, the observer was never truly united with art, as he remained always in quiet contemplation with it, never immersing himself. The appearances of Apollo were designed to shield man from the innate suffering of the world, and thus provide some relief and comfort.
Apollo represents:
Rationality
Reason
Order
Contemplation
Structure
It is an “illusion” “plastic”
Socratic philosophy
Then came Dionysus, whose ecstatic revels first shocked the Apollonian man of Greek culture. In the end, however, it was only through one's immersion in the Dionysian essence of Primordial Unity that redemption from the suffering of the world could be achieved. In Dionysus, man found that his existence was not limited to his individual experiences alone, and thus a way was found to escape the fate of all men, which is death.
Dionysus represents:
Chaos
Revelry
Drunkenness
Sexuality
Disorder
Dionysus is “reality of humanity”
Return to the Pre-Socratics
THE SALVATION OF MAN Nietzsche thus shows Dionysus to be an uplifting alternative to the salvation offered by Christianity, which demands that man renounce life on earth altogether and focus only on heaven. For, in order to achieve salvation through Dionysus, one must immerse oneself in life now.
However, escape from life’s sufferings could never be rooted in “paintings”, “sculpture”, or “poetry”… …it had to be rooted in something that transcended the need for language. …Nietzsche found that escape in music. Music is superior to all other arts in that it does not represent a phenomenon, but rather the "world will" itself.
Tragedy for Nietzsche happened when the Greeks removed music (Dionysus) from their plays to focus on the individual subject and his rational experience of the world (Apollo). Unethical behavior is found in giving supremacy to our Apollonian nature over and against our Dionysian proclivities.