Nietzsche and Rage

According to the Norton, Nietzsche blames "Socrates for the death of the tragic worldview in ancient Athenian society ... Socrates, and then Plato, [suggest] that reason can lead humans to ascertain the truths of the universe to which they can conform" (762).  Essentially, Nietzsche is attacking Plato for the same reason that he attacks Christianity: namely, that both ascribe a comic vision to the world.  Plato tries to argue that the world adheres to certain rules, that the good are rewarded (both in this life and the next) and the bad receive their just desserts.  Nietzsche's response:

Nietzsche on Plato

As with anyone he dislikes, Nietzsche devotes a fair amount of his time bashing Plato "the b(o)ore."  And maybe he had good reason to. Granted, their metaphysics couldn't be further from one another.  But were they so different aesthetically?  I would argue that Plato--through his followers--lives on through Nietzsche.

In a weird way, Nietzsche has been infected with neo-Platonic throught; it finds its way into his concept of the Dionysian (that mystical state, endowed with dark wisdom and abstract rituals), into his notion of the eternal recurrence (compare Plato's doctrine of reincarnation), and finally into his aesthetics.  In book I, Tractate VI of the Enneads, Plotinus discusses the nature of beauty.  While he and Nietzsche disagree metaphysically, their aesthetics are remarkably similar.  Here's a brief play-by-play:


In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche proclaims, concerning the triumph of the Dionysian, that "there now sounds out from within man something supernatural: he feels himself to be a god ... man is no longer an artist, he has become a work of art: all nature's artistic power reveals itself here ... to the highest, most blissful satisfaction of the primordial unity" (777).

Similarly, Plotinus says: once one has achieved “self-mastery” then one has “ascended” and is free to look upon God (37).  By becoming “first all godlike and all beautiful,” one can “see God and beauty” (37). 

Nietzsche goes on to say:

"Here man, the noblest clay, the most precious marble, is kneaded and carved and, to the accompaniment of the chisel-blows, the call ... rings out: ... feelst thy Creator, world" (777).

This clearly echoes Plotinus, who commands that if one's essence is not beautiful, then "like a sculptor to an unfinished statue, one must cut away excess and straighten the crooked and clear the dark and make it bright, and never stop working on your statue ‘til the divine glory of virtue shines out” (36).

Both thinkers seem to share a Romantic (i.e. expressive) foci; while Nietzsche's concept of language are much more postmodern than that of Plotinus, both are nevertheless concerned with the relationship between the artist and the art itself ("man is no longer an artist, he has become a work of art").  In particular, both are interested in how focusing on the expressive properties of art drives both the artist and the perceiver toward a sense of self-perfection: the former so that they might be better understood--after all, it's not a piece of art, but a piece of themselves--and the latter so that they might better understand.  For Plotinus, this meant a better understanding of God.  For Nietzsche, this meant a better understanding, not just of the self, but of "reality": this world.  Nietzsche looked to the world of Becoming, while Plotinus looked to the world of Being.  In a strange way, Plato lives on.