Nietzsche - On Art And Truth Flashcards
The Genealogy of morals examines humankind’s transformation from barbarous creatures into civilised beings who can feel remorse, regret, pity and compassion, but in the process, destroy instinct and freedom.
He took art seriously. He was a close friend of Wagner’s. For Nietzsche, the function of art, music and theatre was to give us a hint of a truth: the truth that the world was chaotic and meaningless. Equally, art had to shield us from this dreadful reality.
Nietzsche was the most art-obsessed philosopher there had been. He regarded himself as a serious poet and composer.
He wrote the Birth of Tragedy very much under the spell of Schopenhauer, who had thought that world was an utterly vile, ghastly place. Existence itself was a terrible mistake. Nietzsche thought that the ancient Greeks had a found a way of using this truth (that the nature of existence is awful) to energise their culture through tragic art.
Through their tragic art forms, the athenians had got just enough of a hint of the dark, irrational forces that shaped the world. They saved themselves from the full impact of this unbearable state by laying over it a veil of illusion. So you got a glimpse of the truth but the truth was made palatable.
You need the truth to energise itself, but then you need the illusion that art also provides to prevent the energy from blowing you apart.
He uses 2 God-like figures (both sons of Zeus) to personify various metaphysical levels. He thought that these were the only 2 Gods that mattered.
The reality that the world is chaotic and full of destruction and meaningless striving is associated with Dionysus (chaos, emotion, instinct and impulse). Illusion and surface appearance he associates with the God Apollo (reason, calm. wisdom and logical thinking)
In classical Greek tragedy he thought that there was an ingenius synthesis between letting in the Dionysian truth but making it palatable via the Apollonian illusion - this was a unique achievement.
Nietzsche argues that the opposition between Dionysus and Apollo runs right through Greek culture. And through all of us. At their finest the Greeks gave room for the tussle between Dionysus and Apollo.
In came Socrates who brought about the death of tragedy. He declared there could be no such ‘irrational world’, because in the Socratic worldview there was some equation between reason and reality.
Now the Apollonian illusion of reality actually becomes reality. Nietzsche thought that Schopenhauer and the Pre-Socratic Greeks were really onto something and that they could draw strength from the true nature of existence. That reality was denied after Socrates appeared on the scene.
Nietzsche thought that real wisdom comes from accepting the Dionysian side of us.
Nietzsche thought that the world was full of destruction. There was no pattern or meaning or reason to it. But art could provide temporary salvation.
Getting a glimpse of the Dionysian ‘true’ worldview is energising because of the raw primal energy it unleashes. However, too much of it is psychologically destructive. From the point of view of our individual existence, the very best thing for us would never to have been born at all; the second best thing is to die soon. If you truly understand the illusoriness of your own individuality then you can only conceive of your life as a mistake. So you need some illusions to protect yourself from that. The Appollonian is peddling a kind of untruth to protect us from the truth. Art is useful in the provision of illusions.
Glimpsing the horrible nature of reality can be good for you as it is energising. Nietzsche thought there was some good in suffering and the attempt to abolish it was a classic example of life that no longer had the energy for itself - on terminal decline.
He thinks that the world is inherently chaotic, indifferent to human needs and purposes. The Socratic/Christian take is a dangerous fantasy because they tell big wholesale lies to make the inconvenient truth more palatable.
What we have to do instead, he thought, was to tell little lies: those that do not falsify the entire character of existence.
