Monday, April 17, 2017

Dionysian Psychology and Artistic Genius

Nietzsche's description, in Birth of Tragedy, of the creative experience of the Dionysian Artist being as if one were oneself the work of Art of some primordial force, resembles Kant's characterization of Artistic Genius.  But, instead of developing a Dionysian Psychology based on Genius as the prototype condition, the theory of his mature period is traditional Atomism, with Will to Power replacing Will to Live as the fundamental principle.  He, thus, avoids having to decide whether or not the Genius of Apollonian Art is itself a Dionysian condition.  If he had, he might have further concluded that Individuation is a Dionysian mode with positive significance, not a Schopenhauerian illusion.

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