Thursday, May 2, 2013

Dionysian, Will to Power, Creativity

In #9 and #211 of Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche identifies Will to Power with Creativity.  Now, characterizations of the Artist, that he presents in #1 of Birth of Tragedy, such as "he feels himself a god", and "he is no longer an artist, he has become a work of art', suggest that the Dionysian is a principle of Creativity, celebrated by what are actually fertility rites, rather than mere orgies, which is why they also include "dismemberment into individuals" (BT, #2).  So, the Will to Power can be conceived as a Mode, in Spinoza's sense of the term, of the Dionysian principle.

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