The Sublime, Beauty, and Dance

In the Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche represents Beauty as the Apollinian principle, i. e. the principle of individuating Form, but, thereafter, there is rarely a reference to the Apollinian. Its disappearance could mark Nietzsche's increasing distance from Schopenhauer's influence. For, initially, at least, Beauty plays the same role in his theory of Tragedy as it does in Schopenhauer's theory of Music--as a palliative for suffering--and the Apollinian seems to be as important to Tragedy as is the Dionysian, Nietzsche's principle of the Sublime. Yet, as Nietzsche continues to place emphasis on the latter, his treatment of Beauty becomes ironic--Beauty is merely illusory, albeit a psychologically necessary illusion. However, with his eventual introduction of Will to Power, which often he characterizes as 'Form-imposing', he seems to have effectively accomplished reducing the Apollinian to a mode of the Dionysian, Beauty to a mode of the Sublime. Nevertheless, such reductionism falls short of explaining why Beauty is necessary to the Sublime, the Apollinian to the Dionysian, or, in Schopenhauerian terms, why Will must individuate. Consequently, Formaterialism rejects this reductionism, and maintains the independence of the two principles: the Material Principle, i. e. the Dionysian, and the Formal Principle, i. e. the Apollinian. Furthermore, it finds in Nietszche's Aesthetic system an example of an Artform which is central to it, and expresses a balanced coordination of the Dionysian and Apollinian, of the Sublime and Beauty. Whereas Schopenhauer contemplates Music, Nietzsche quite explicitly dances to it, and he repeatedly asserts his esteem for Dance. But, Dance is the achieving of bodily Form while under the influence of Music. Hence, it balances the Dionysian and the Apollinian, the Sublime and Beauty.