Friedrich Nietzsche, a Russian philosopher who lived in the nineteenth century, was known for his extreme pessimistic attitude. He and other philosophers saw the world in a such a negative light that many claimed that it may be better to die than continue living. However, unlike other philosophers of his time, he argued that art makes life possible to live. More specifically, Nietzsche argued that art disguises the ugly reality of human existence and rather illustrates an ideal version of life, spreading hope for a better future.
Nietzsche believed that though life is a struggle, “the arts generally make life worth living.” However, he felt this pessimistic attitude was a problem and came to his conclusion about art after turning his attention
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More specifically, Apollonian art forms tells stories through images and are rooted in dreaming. Much like dreams, apollonian art encourages one to continue living. While contemplating apollonian images, an individual is temporarily detached from her normal sense of self and daily struggle. Here, Nietzsche once again references ancient Greece. The Iliad and the Odyssey illustrate idealized illusions of war with great heroes. The language used is able to idealize a bloody war scene and turn it into something more desireable. Similarly, when one gets a tattoo to cover up a scar, they are transfiguring the reality to create something ideal. But the scar and the world do not disappear by these transfigurations and the objective harshness remains. However, our attitude towards the real thing is changed. We see the world in a more hopeful and positive light. As beautiful art is placed in front of the terrors of everyday life, reality may seem less awful and thus art makes life worth living. But Nietzsche realized the limitations of apollonian art. For once we see reality again, the illusion art created breaks and reality seems worse than it appeared …show more content…
But here, joy doesn’t come from idealized images but rather musical symbols and sounds. As one listens to music for instance, the person gets “outside of” herself and her pleasure comes from becoming one with nature. Furthermore, the reunion of man and man is reaffirmed. For instance, people at a concert have a feeling of unity as they are all listening to the same music and experiencing the same feeling. Music and dance transform the consciousness of the individual who is immersed in them and the feeling of separation is lost. Nietzsche describes music symbols as resembling the ecstatic state of mind that they suggest, these symbols transfigure and sweeten reality. So, dionysian music symbols don’t necessarily represent one specific thought or emotion. Thus, while listening to music, the world is transfigured into an aesthetically pleasing world, and thereby makes life possible and worth living. But much like apollonian art, diosynian art involves an illusion and once the music stops, we return to the ugly reality and there is a danger of letdown when the dionysian experience is
...e. Because what we choose in life determines the degree to which we live. And at the very core of every person lies the drive to live. As humans with a high degree of cognitive intelligence, we are a part of nature, not above it; our high intellect should serve as a tool to understand this fact. To Nietzsche, humans must destroy everything, so that a new and more pure humanity centered on life can rise. I do agree that we must abandon the traditional illusions that have prevented humans from embracing life, but living in pursuit of destruction is not necessarily the answer. I believe that we must not let human made and human imposed notions of right or wrong control how we live, but living for the sake of destruction is not living. We must live to find an inner and individual satisfaction. Therefore, all life choices should be made with the intent of embracing life.
Although Nietzsche lived in an extremely different time than the modern Western world, his ideas transfer well into the future. The man of the 2200, and beyond, he most likely will continue to be driven to work, over his drive to spend time enjoying art and his family. Nietzsche’s philosophy would continue to reprimand this man for not spending enough time at home and not spending enough time doing the things he wanted to do in life. The aesthetic hearer needs to crush the theoretical man and reestablish the society in a positive and artistic way. Nietzsche’s idea of the overman comes into play:
The Greek’s images also possessed two important ideas that brought the soul of the artist and subject to the surface while still capturing the passion and action of the movement and story: noble simplicity and quiet grandeur. Greek images contained faces that were full of expression but were also balanced because they were not overcome by pain or passion because they still had nobility of soul which creates a sense of tranquility even in the midst of rage, fervor, or desire.
All of Camus' writings may be viewed as a quest for meaningful values in a world of spiritual aridity and emptiness. He begins with man's despair, estrangement, fear, suffering and hopelessness in a world where is neither God nor the promise that He will come- the fundamental absurdity of existence- but ultimately affirms the power of man to achieve spiritual regeneration and the measure of salvation possible in an absurd universe. This radical repudiation of despair and nihilism is closely bound up with his concept of an artist. Camus conceives of art as a way of embracing a consciousness of the absurdity of man's existential plight. But art becomes a means of negating that absurdity because the artist reconstructs the reality, endowing it with unity, endurance and perfection. By taking elements from reality that confirms the absurd existence, an artist attempts to correct the world by words and redistribution. Thus the artist never provides a radical transformation of reality but a fundamental reinterpretation of what already exists. He provides a new angle of vision of perceiving reality. That is why, for Camus, an artist is a recreator of myth. He teaches humanity that contemporary man must abandon the old myths that have become otiose, though once defined his existence. The artist liberates man to live in his world by redefining both man and the condition in which he exists. In this regard, it is important to point out that, for Camus, the traditional opposition between art and philosophy is arbitrary. It is because they together become most effective to create the redefinition: the philosophy awakens the consciousness and the art, propelled by such a radical discovery, ...
Written in 1872, On The Pathos of Truth is a descriptive essay by Friedrich Nietzsche concerning his philosophies on fame, knowledge, art and seeking truth. Like many of his other works such as “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense” where he also touches on the subject of truth, and in “Beyond Good and Evil” were the main topic is morality correlates to his ideas on fame. using many metaphors and aphorisms with quick changes in topic to get across his point. He concludes the essay by describing why art is necessary along with knowledge.
After studying Logic, I now believe that Nietzsche is wrong in saying human reasoning is not valid. I believe this because after reading through Nietzsche’s argument I see some fallacies that make Nietzsche’s argument less valid. I also see that Nietzsche is saying that human reasoning must not be valid because we cannot understand our own concepts, such as leaves or honesty. In this paper, I will be proving that Nietzsche is incorrect in saying that human reasoning is not valid.
Overall Nietzsche is successful at responding to Schopenhauer’s philosophy as his work in Birth of Tragedy, in introducing the Apollonian and Dionysian, echoes and coincides with Schopenhauer’s ideas. Schopenhauer claims that knowledge and art are the way to escape the will, suffering, and Nietzsche seems to describe the process of doing that by defining art and its connections to knowledge. Those who disagree that Nietzsche is successful might say that him defining art for Schopenhauer is going too far. One cannot deny that there may be different paths to achieving perfect knowledge and contemplation, however, within the generality of Schopenhauer saying that art and knowledge are the ways to escape suffering, Nietzsche successfully created a definition for art and a valid argument that stays within the parameters of Schopenhauer’s philosophy.
We see what people have gone through in their paintings, by looking at every single detail big or small. Every detail that’s in a painting could have a deep meaning to it. The colors give an idea of what the painting could be about, is it exhilarating or depressing? Although it may be surprising, art helps express emotions. “I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed with this decent and good feeling.” Kahlo had finally gotten past her desolation. Sometimes art could help you become a stronger person by helping you with personal issues. It’s also a stress reliever for some people it’ll relax them and put them in a good state of mind. Kahlo stayed strong throughout all the pain she went through her whole life. For instance, she had 30 operations throughout her whole life and they were all because of the bus
Friedrich Nietzsche was a philosopher in the 1800’s. His work has since influenced, impacted, and brought forth new questions for many philosophers to follow. One of Nietzsche’s famous writings Beyond Good and Evil expresses his views on society and the two different classes it holds, slave and master. He expresses his belief that the two are in warfare with one another, the strong (master) fighting for the will to power, while the weak (slave) tries to pull the master down to their level using clandestine forms of revenge. Nietzsche believed the slave morality was one that included humility, obedience, and submission, and was the destructive choice and attribute of Christianity, while the master morality was full of arrogance and pride and that power of man himself is what needs to be attained. Nietzsche sought to prove that the master morality was the only true way to success in life and this was to come at any cost, even the cost of another weaker individual. Nietzsche’s theories do not hold true against the ultimate truth of the Bible, where in which all has been tried and proven true, time and time again.
“There are no truths,” states one. “Well, if so, then is your statement true?” asks another. This statement and following question go a long way in demonstrating the crucial problem that any investigator of Nietzsche’s conceptions of perspectivism and truth encounters. How can one who believes that one’s conception of truth depends on the perspective from which one writes (as Nietzsche seems to believe) also posit anything resembling a universal truth (as Nietzsche seems to present the will to power, eternal recurrence, and the Übermensch)? Given this idea that there is no truth outside of a perspective, a transcendent truth, how can a philosopher make any claims at all which are valid outside his personal perspective? This is the question that Maudemarie Clark declares Nietzsche commentators from Heidegger and Kaufmann to Derrida and even herself have been trying to answer. The sheer amount of material that has been written and continues to be written on this conundrum demonstrates that this question will not be satisfactorily resolved here, but I will try to show that a resolution can be found. And this resolution need not sacrifice Nietzsche’s idea of perspectivism for finding some “truth” in his philosophy, or vice versa. One, however, ought to look at Nietzsche’s philosophical “truths” not in a metaphysical manner but as, when taken collectively, the best way to live one’s life in the absence of an absolute truth.
In Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche, Nietzsche talks about will to power. Before talking about the will to power, one must understand power itself. What is power? Power can be interpreted in different ways. Power can be interpreted in making a person do what one wants even if the person will not in any way be subjected. Today in international relations, power is what make international relations. According to Nietzsche, the will to power is the main focus for humans. Everyone wants power for different reasons. One reason is to be the leader of a country or another reason is so their name will live on. Today most people want to achieve the most powerful position in the world and that is being the President of the United States of America. The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the world because of many reasons. One reason is because the President of the United States is the only leader of a country that is a superpower. Other countries around the world according to international relations, are great powers but none of them can be a superpower.
Persistent throughout Nietzsche’s works is the theme of necessary inequality. In the second part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra he offers an account of those who resist inequality.
All of Friedrich Nietzsche quotes were made before the age of 44. For the last 11 years of his life, he had no use of his mental capabilities. While many of Friedrich Nietzsche quotes were focused on religion, or the fallacy of it, it would be interesting to see what he would have written about later in his life and if his opinion would have changed. Although, the statement 'God is dead' did come from him, so there would likely have been no change in how he viewed religion. Many of his quotes are focused on human behavior and existence, and following are some that moved me.
For over two thousand years, various philosophers have questioned the influence of art in our society. They have used abstract reasoning, human emotions, and logic to go beyond this world in the search for answers about arts' existence. For philosophers, art was not viewed for its own beauty, but rather for the question of how art and artists can help make our society more stable for the next generation. Plato, a Greek philosopher who lived during 420-348 B.C. in Athens, and Aristotle, Plato’s student who argued against his beliefs, have no exceptions to the steps they had to take in order to understand the purpose of art and artists. Though these two philosophers made marvelous discoveries about the existence of art, artists, and aesthetic experience, Plato has made his works more controversial than Aristotle.
The novella Death in Venice by Thomas Mann describes the journey of an older German writer, Gustav Aschenbach, who comes to Venice on vacation and falls deliriously in love with a young boy. This love, and the obsession it culminates in lead to the demise of the writer. Mann’s story seems to be about an ill-fated love but in truth it tells a tale of a man who goes from total control of his life and his being to an irrational creature who is controlled by wild emotions that he will eventually succumb to. Such a story line perfectly illustrates the differences between the two Greek gods of art and how people can fall under the influence of each. Both Apollo and Dyonisis are gods of creativity and art in the Greek world yet they have such different