VCE Philosophy Unit 4

Friedrich Nietzsche 1844—1900

Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30

(Opening)

Without music, life would be an error.

Twilight of the Idols (1895), MAXIMS AND ARROWS 33

All music? Seriously?What’s so great about music?

Nietzsche’s key virtue: HONESTY

Nietzsche’s key method: SUSPICION

Nietzsche’s key problem: WHAT HE FINDS

Dionysus and the ‘Tragic Sensibility’

Nietzsche’s first book

The Birth of Tragedy (out of the Spirit of Music) introduces:

Music … frees me from myself, it sobers me up from myself, as though I survey the scene from a great distance … It is very strange. It is as though I had bathed in some natural element. Life without music is simply an error, exhausting, an exile.

—from a letter written in 1888

So,

MUSIC is necessary for THE GOOD LIFE because,

MUSIC is a necessary part of an honest and vital CULTURE

an honest and vital CULTURE is necessary for a GOOD LIFE.

and

Nietzsche’s key assumptions:

• the most important human achievement of all is a vital culture —a culture that is honest, wary and yet AFFIRMATIVE;

• such a culture requires constant renewal;

• morality, politics and science are all strictly secondary phenomena; they can grow out of a vital culture and support it but they should never take precedence.

• OUR CULTURE MAKES US WHO WE ARE.

TGL involves creative achievement born

of striving to overcome resistances and setbacks.

Nietzsche’s underlying thoughts on The Good Life (TGL):

TGL involves being an active participant and contributor to an honest and vital culture.

So, in other words

Which of these most closely resembles your notion of the good life?

Nietzsche’s most interesting explorations are aimed at rooting out the modern DANGERS that might prevent us from achieving an honest and vital (a living, growing, adapting) culture…

Note 225: an argument against moralities based on an unconditional concern to prevent or diminish SUFFERING.

(CONTRA MODERN MORAL VALUES)

The very best life is one spent participating in and contributing to a vital culture.

A vital culture needs constant production of GREAT ART.

Making GREAT ART involves the acceptance, indeed the AFFIRMATION of SUFFERING.

Note 225 conclusion:

DON’T TRUST MORALITIES BASED ON AVOIDING SUFFERING!

Note 199: an argument AGAINSTmodern EGALARIANISM AND DEMOCRATIC VALUES

The very best life is one spent participating in and contributing to a vital culture.

A vital culture requires great cultural contributors (great artists and philosophers — ‘unconditional commanders’) who can put themselves to hard tasks and, for a time, ignore the needs of others.

The modern egalitarian or democratic notion of UNIVERSAL EQUALITY promotes homogeneity and so tends to stifle eccentricity (it tends to make the exceptional feel ashamed of themselves).

Note 199 conclusion:

DON’T TRUST MODERN DEMOCRATIC/EGALARIAN VALUES!

Notes 260 & 201:

Why are the values of equality and avoiding suffering so popular?

The Genealogy of Morals — Masters and slaves

Masters: those who can set themselves challenges and put themselves to great tasks (suffer for their art).

Slaves: those who need someone else to push them!

Nietzsche’s question: which are you?

Notes 203, 228, and 284

Nietzsche’s positive agenda:

The PHILOSOPHERS OF THE FUTURE

And the REVALUATION OF ALL VALUES

But we can’t all be great artists can we?

(And anyhow, it wouldn’t work if we all were!)

Artists gather, critically select and creatively respond.

In whatever we do we are gathering, critically selecting and creatively responding.

So, in a sense, just by being alive we are all behaving ‘Artistically.’

Nietzsche’s answer:

We are all the artists, of our own lives!

So what, in the end, is Nietzsche telling us?

plodding, tedious, pedantic, humourless, commonplace, spiritless, non-geniuses (end of note 228).

light footed, engaging, reckless, laughing, extraordinary, spirited GENIUSES!

Make YOUR OWN LIFE an ARTWORK!

— even if it means being selfish and causing pain!

Don’t be:

Strive to become:

VCE Philosophy Unit 4