Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Exuberance and Vitalism

'Exuberance' connotes 'superabundant fecundity'.  So, since Dionysus is also the god of fertility, the term might better characterize the Dionysian experience than "joy", "enchantment", and "ecstasy", which Nietzsche uses.  This celebration of human reproduction thus contrasts diametrically with the representation of it as a divine curse, in Genesis 3, and as an imposition, by Schopenhauer.  And, as connoting creativity beyond itself, it also diverges from Spinoza's "bliss", which is a merely self-contained peak moment.  Furthermore, the image of superabundance anticipates the fundamental pattern of the Will to Power, which can, accordingly, be recognized as prefigured in the opening sections of Birth of Tragedy.  So, though Nietzsche himself does not use "exuberance", it illuminates how, in several respects, his Vitalism is a pivotal principle.

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