Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Individuation, Apollinian, Proprioception

'Individual' has two non-equivalent meanings: the literal one, 'undivided', and the common one, 'separated'.  Correspondingly, two varieties of 'individuation' are inner and outer, respectively.  Now, Schopenhauer's Principle of Individuation is of the latter type, as is much Nietzsche's version of it, his Apollinan principle.  However, Nietzsche diverges from his predecessor by discerning a Dionysian process of outer individuation as well, i. e. Rupture, dismemberment, birth, etc., which the outer Apollinian principle serves to refine.  But, he also recognizes an inner Apollinain principle, the source of the "beautiful illusion of the inner world", "measured restraint", and the "calm of the sculptor" (BT, #1).  What he does not recognize is that the ground of these inner characteristics is Proprioception, which, as the organic independent complement of Motility, produces the original body image from which all illusion is derived, and as fundamentally homeostatic, is the basis of all measured restraint and calm.  Proprioception functions thus to unify Motility, i.e . to 'individuate' it, in the inner sense, even during dancing, so, therein, the Apollinain principle is coeval with the Dionysian principle, and is not subsequent to, and derived from, the latter, as Nietzsche proposes.

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