Saturday, January 19, 2019

Dionysian, Genius, Evolution

Nietzsche's concept of Dionysian is explicitly inspired by Schopenhauer's Will to Live.  So, since the latter is conceived as a non-Rational Universal principle to counter Kant's Pure Practical Reason, so, too, is the Dionysian apparently at odds with Kantian principles.  However, what corresponds to the Dionysian in Kant's system is not Pure Practical Reason, but Genius, a creative impulse that elevates a person beyond the bounds of ordinary self-interest, and that gets transmitted to others.  For some, such as Kant, the scope of that impulse is Art, but the more recent association of it with Einstein suggests that it transcends any specialized spheres of activity.  Rather, it is manifest in any case of shared creativity, e. g. by social visionaries.  In other words, Genius is nothing other than the Evolutionary impulse in the Species, which Nietzsche later implicitly realizes when he re-formulates the Dionysian principle as a surplus with respect to the Will to Live, i. e. as the Will to Power.

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