Nietzsche’s Philosophy: Dionysian vs. Apollonian
Nietzsche’s Critique of Morality
Nietzsche, fundamentally a philologist rather than a philosopher, recognized two fundamental aspects of Greek culture: the Apollonian and the Dionysian. The Apollonian represents unity, reason, harmony, and measure. The Dionysian embodies multiplicity, life, orgies, and is not subject to reason, measure, or harmony. For Nietzsche, the wisdom of Greek culture lay in acknowledging both of these elements. However, he believed that the Dionysian element was lost, leaving only the Apollonian. Nietzsche identified Socrates, Plato, Judaism, and Christianity as responsible for this loss. Socrates believed that man should enhance his uniqueness through reason, thus placing the rational above the sensitive and sensible, which were deemed negative values. Nietzsche argued that neglecting the sensible deprives us of one of life’s essential values. Similarly, Christianity, influenced by Neoplatonism, rejected the sensible, prioritizing the spirit over the body.
From Socrates to Jesus Christ, a decline occurred, marked by the advent of monotheism. The plurality of perspectives is crucial for human freedom, and politicians have always foreshadowed the free and multifaceted spirit of man. This force created new ways of seeing the world. Polytheism represents a moment of brilliance in thought. Nietzsche denounced the values of resentment and the spirit of vengeance that permeate Christian morality, along with the guilt arising from compassion. Nietzsche believed that Christianity inverted the moral values of the ancient, aristocratic, and active world, leading to a morality of resentment.
The Death of God
When Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God, he did not mean that God existed and then died, but rather that belief in God had died. This signifies the end of belief in absolute entities.
God did not create man, but man created God. Belief in God served to comfort humans in the face of misery and suffering. Nietzsche’s reference to the death of God encompasses not only the Christian God but also anything that could replace it as an absolute, such as the progress of science, which are treated as absolute realities analogous to God.
Zarathustra
Zarathustra is a collection of Nietzsche’s thoughts with moral overtones. This book aims at the transmutation of values and the recovery of the Dionysian element. Nietzsche, by denying an entire philosophy and religion, found himself alone and isolated, leading him to consider various aspects. What needs to be done to reintroduce the strongly suppressed Dionysian element throughout history? A transmutation of all values is necessary. Man must move in favor of life and follow its dictates, rejecting any moral code. Contrary to traditional metaphysics, Nietzsche asserted that an immutable world does not exist. It is the same that needs to invent immutability and permanence. Neither of these are real because man is in a state of becoming, and the future is infinite and eternal. If man were to fully accept this evolution, he would go mad, hence the invention of stable values.
The Will to Power
The will to power is irrational because the world is not rational but is characterized by chaos, becoming, death, and variation. Man’s reason serves more basic instincts and emotions. The will to power is unconscious; it is the primary force that determines the course of other things and has no purpose. For Nietzsche, it is a mass of impersonal forces seeking confrontation and competing with each other. Nietzsche does not accept moral grounds that come from outside. We must find the values within life itself. Nietzsche is not immoral in the sense of opposing ethics, but rather he possesses his own morality.