Friday, April 5, 2013

Rapture and Rupture

As has been previously discussed, in the first section of Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche diverges from Schopenhauer's concept of the noumenal realm, by characterizing the Dionysian experience as one of "ecstasy".  However, starting in section 3, he suddenly reverts to agreement with Schopenhauer, by describing that experience as "suffering and contradictory".  Now, he does not explain the apparent inconsistency between the two characterizations, but one way that they would be compatible is if they refer to two distinct, inverse, moments in the experience, that can be termed 'Rapture' and 'Rupture'.  For example, as applied to Schopenhauer's system, Sympathy and Contemplation are rapturous, while Rupture is the source of the various noumenal differentiations--Reproduction, Character, 'I Will', etc.--that, as has been previously discussed, is not adequately explained.  It is unclear if either Schopenhauer or Nietzsche would accept that analysis of the noumenon, but if not caused by such a Rupture, suffering is as irreal as is the individual that bears it.

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