Will to Power and Aesthetic Theory

Nietzsche's main contribution to Aesthetic Theory is generally considered to be his theory of Tragedy, with its Dionysian and Apollinian categories. However, despite his continuing to dub himself a 'Dionysian' and a 'Tragedian', his mature work overrides his earlier views. With his affirmation of Eternal Recurrence, he detaches himself from Schopenhauerism, by, in particular, separating the inarguable factuality of specific instances of human suffering from both the general thesis that Life is Suffering, and the consequent pessimistic attitude towards Life. Instead, Nietzsche affirms Life in general, including its particular adversities, thereby transforming Pessimism into Joy. This triumph over misery leads him to discover that all experience is Will to Power, and that pleasure and pain are feelings of strength and weakness, respectively, in particular situations, a diagnosis that he recognizes as having been advanced by Spinoza. Accordingly the pleasures afforded by Apollinian contemplation, or by Socratic optimism, is an expression of mastery over afflictive Dionysian circumstance, as is the joyful affirmation of the latter. In other words, Will to Power offers an innovative criterion for Aesthetic evaluation--the degree of strength involved in an Artist's mastery over circumstances, including materials--that is applicable to Tragedy specifically. In Formaterialism, 'degree of strength' is 'degree of complexity'.