the world: the realm of facts and pain (what existentialists called "absurd"). the multiple refraction of the world constitute the world of representation and experience.
dyonisian: the "primordial unity" of things, a state of "intoxication" in which the deepest and most "horrible truths" of the world are glimpsed.
apollonian: the illusory, "mere appearance" of things. a dream-like state in which all knowledge is knowledge of surfaces. aesthetically speaking, apollonian is the beautiful as intelligible.
the sublime: (in Kant's aesthetics) the overwhelming, awe-inspiring and yet elevating experience of things which exceed rational apprehension).
N's use of dynisian/apollonian: both Dionysian and Apollonian cross-fertilize one another, so that the metaphysical horror of existence is simultaneously revealed and made bearable (in aesthetics the prime example is TRAGEDY (especially Greek tragedy).
take the dilemma of Orestes written by Euripides: 1- he feels duty bound to avenge the murder of his father, Agamemnon, even though to do so will take killing his mother and becoming guilty of matricide. 2- the murder of Agamemnon by Orestes' mother, Clytaemestra, was committed to avenge the sacrifice of her daughter, Iphigeneia, by Agamemnon he rown dad! (but wait! the sacrifice of Iphigeneia had been demanded by the gods as atonement so that "fair Helen" could be retaken from Troy). 3- So, Orestes is caught up in a horrible web of obligation and necessity dictated by generation after generation of his ancestors wreaking violent revenge on each other. Each act requires to respond to an earlier one, but none able to claim any ultimate moral justification.Nietzsche (part 2)
in N2 the appearance/reality distinction is transposed into the real world of human experience.
art lies: "art is the lie that sanctifies and the will-to-deception then has a good conscience". art beautifies life by interposing a veil of lies between us and truths about the world that we cannot bear (note: Wilde said the same thing contemporaneously in his The Decay of Lying).
life-affirming valuations: it's the acknowledgement of the instincts of the SELF: they make our spirit soar, we become proud of ourselves.
life-denying valuations: we fall prey to weakness, to bad faith, do double morality.
master morality: master morality is nobility, qualities of open-mindedness, courage, truthfulness, trust, and an accurate sense of one's self-worth. the master is rooted in self-affirmation & self-glorification of life.
slave morality: the inverse of master morality, based on resentiment. self-denying, pessimistic, cynical, subservient to norms, slave morality devalues what the master values and the slave does not have.
art and the artist: art is a transformative and interpretative activity. art includes all creation and imposition of forms. the artist finds and creates new meaning.
morality as a constraint: every morality involves the regulation of behavior through the repression of (at least some) instincts.
morality is a special case of the aesthetic. morality constraints, art liberates
Self-poesis: one is and becomes one's work of art. to achieve self-poesis one has to be ruthless with oneself, both in recognizing ones own bad faith (the different ways that we lie to ourselves) and fixing it by reinterpreting it.
christian/pagan dichotomy: the christian construes himself as an immortal soul, while the pagan understands all suffering in relation to the spectator of it. the pagan sees life as a movie he has to play.
amor fati: love your fate.
No comments:
Post a Comment