The Non-Dialectic of Tragic in Nietzsche’s Thinking

Abstract

Considering the dialectical structure of tragic thought in classical philosophy, one can read Nietzsche’s conception of the tragic in a dialectical way. Reading Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy in this way is justified, as long as the Apollonian and Dionysian are understood as contrasting impulses who work together in their “reciprocal necessity”. Beginning of the fifth chapter of this book, however, there is a second design of the tragic experience; here Nietzsche emphasizes that Dionysian is the affirmative dimension of the tragic. This non dialectical conception of tragic, as Nietzsche builds it along his work, stresses the non necessity to justify life, the affirmation of life as it is, without deploring and rebuilding it, and without giving it an alien meaning. This conception cancels the negativity which founds the dialectical conception of the tragic, in so far as suffering, vain, and finiteness are no longer seen as opposed to life and in need of an appoint justification: they belong to it. The philosophical task is to ask: of what does the tragic of an absolute affirmation of life consist of, if the dialectic contradiction is repealed.

Authors and Affiliations

Lucian Ionel

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  • EP ID EP85672
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How To Cite

Lucian Ionel (2011). The Non-Dialectic of Tragic in Nietzsche’s Thinking. Meta: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy, 3(1), 54-80. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-85672