Nietzsche's Analysis: Apollonian & Dionysian

Analysis

1. The Apollonian and Dionysian

Nietzsche aims to create a philosophy capable of understanding the reality of human life. Our author sees life as a process in constant realization. This aims to understand the human species and therefore needs to analyze the human reality in all its manifestations. He is critical of earlier philosophers because they forget that man is a being in permanent construction. Nietzsche maintains the idea that life is cruel and a blind irrationality. The Greek god Dionysus represents life. Art gives us the strength to accept life as it is. Tragic art represents the full affirmation of life. The secret of the Greek world is in the Dionysian spirit.

To explain the reality of life, Nietzsche draws on the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus. Dionysus, god of wine, represents strength and instinctive sensual passion; he is the symbol of humanity. Life comes first and therefore cannot be judged. The acceptance of life transforms pain into joy. From the joyful assumption of life is born the Nietzschean concept of "force" and his critique of Christian morality and the socialist morals of weak individuals.

Apollo, god of the sun, represents order, the attempt to express the meaning of things with a measure that seeks balanced figures. He is the image of individual security. Apollo is identified with the arts. Both are represented in the tragedy in two ways: Apollo through the characters, by word, and Dionysus through the choir and music. These two trends represent an anthropological conception: the human being as homo sapiens (Apollo) and homo demens (Dionysus). Dionysus has no moral responsibility. The Apollonian is the denial of the Dionysian, but the Dionysian needs the Apollonian to find a momentary rest to its rapid flow. For Nietzsche, tragedy is unity. Nietzsche thinks that Euripides, Socrates, and Plato were the cause of the Greek tragedy's demise.

2. Critique of Philosophy: The "Idiosyncrasy" (Metaphysics) of Philosophers

Nietzsche believes that European culture has fallen into nihilism, which is not "the result of Christianity, morality, and the concept of truth in philosophy." Nihilism is one of the key concepts, and it takes on several meanings:

• a) Metaphysical Nihilism: The Platonic-Christian tradition itself, which denies any value to this life.
• b) Reactive Nihilism: The Enlightenment. It is the denial of the value of the beyond. It is the destruction of traditional cultural values; the result is racial disorientation.
• c) Post-metaphysical Nihilism: It is to deny all value to any afterlife and therefore affirm...