Philosophy Now Forum

Hello all! I want to do a bachelor thesis (licence) about Nietzsche's positive evaluation of illusion from an aesthetic point of view, which I have to present in July 2018. For the moment I don't have the general plan for my thesis, and the first step is to reread the works of Nietzsche and to take notes on the matter. In the meantime, I would really like us to discuss here Nietzsche's aesthetics, the primacy of art over science, the denial of the slogan "l'art pour l'art" and the discriminatory character of the artist et cetera.

I would begin with the Birth of Tragedy and its definition of Dionysian and Apollonian.

"Truth cannot be regarded as the highest power. The will to semblance, to illusion, to deception, to becoming, to change (to objective deception) is to be regarded here as deeper, more original, more metaphysical than the will to truth, to reality, to being - the latter is itself merely a form of the will to illusion."

And:

"It is nothing more than a moral prejudice that truth is worth more than semblance, it is in fact the worst proved supposition in the world. And so much must be conceded: there could be no life at all except upon the basis of perspectives, estimates and semblances; and if, with the virtuous enthusiasm and stupidity of many philosophers, one would wish to do away with the "seeming world" altogether - well, granted that YOU could do that, - then nothing of your "truth" would still remain! Indeed, what is it that drives us to the supposition that there is an essential opposition between "true" and "false"? Is it not enough to suppose degrees of semblance, and as it were lighter and darker shades and tones of illusion - different valeurs, as the painters say?"