Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

Here are definitions of two terms that occur in the text selections.

Principium individuationis: the principle of individuation (so that we are individuals, not merely merged with our surroundings, natural and social).

Maya, illusion (a Hindu concept of the transient and ultimately unreal character of the created multiplicity in which we seem to find ourselves).

The younger Nietzsche describes truth in art as an engaging and compelling dream, an illusion, an appearance which makes life worth living. This is so even though the underlying reality is very different. This we see when the Apollonian artist loses his individuality in Dionysian intoxication to become a work of art. For example, feel the joyous experience of brotherhood dissolving the boundaries between human beings in Beethoven’s musical setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy.

The later Nietzsche asks what the significance of morality is from the perspective of life, and answers that life is amoral, that Christian morality conceals a hatred of life, so that only the reckless and amoral artist-god can experience, whether he is building or destroying, in the good and the bad, his own joy and glory. There is no underlying truth, only appearances, so art is the truly metaphysical activity of man.