Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Dionysian, Perspective, Power

According to Nietzsche, the Dionysian experience shatters the image of the Self as an independent entity.  Now in many places, he seems to advocate that the subsequent challenge is to accept the inherent vanity of any such representation, and to ironically construct a new image.  But, an alternative interpretation begins with concept of the experience as not so much shattering the Self, but as revealing it as a Part of a Whole, with the implication that its representations are perspectives, not illusions.  That implication is briefly developed in #10 and #257 of Beyond Good and Evil, including the considerations that Perspective can be more or less comprehensive, and that the Will to Power seeks greater comprehensiveness. In other words, Perspectivism is not necessarily egalitarian.  But, it also does not necessarily follow that the scope of a perspective is fixed, or that, as he contends in 257, the relation between members with greater perspective, to those with lesser, is one of subjugation.  Rather, it could also be one of education, in which the seeking of greater comprehensiveness of lesser scopes is promoted.

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