حکمت و فلسفه (Sep 2013)
Nietzsche’s Dionysian Approach to Life and Death
Abstract
According to Schopenhauer, man’s encounter with death and suffering has turned him into a metaphysical animal, that is, a being in search for a meaning or justification for his suffering and death. Nietzsche agrees on this point with Schopenhauer. The author of this paper seeks to show how Nietzsche attempts through his different works, which represent different stages of his thinking, to come up with a meaning for death, or at least some consolation. The German scholar first begins with the Apollonian and the Dionysian solutions, in The Birth of Tragedy, which the author elaborates on in the second part of the current paper and shows why Nietzsche prefers the second over the first. In his middle works, Nietzsche abandons his early solution and makes way for some momentary experiments. Then, he returns to the Dionysian approach which is, according to the author’s claim, his ultimate solution or consolation in the face of death in his later works, although this time not based on a metaphysical foundation as it was in his first book.
