Pessimism and the Affirmation of Life: Nietzsche's Tragic Philosophy

Abstract

This dissertation maintains that Nietzsche’s thought amounts to an immanent critique of culture by way of an intellectual seduction targeting the gullibility of human desire. I provide an account of this critique in the context of what Nietzsche calls “tragic” philosophy, which I argue is already fully on display in his first book, The Birth of Tragedy (1872). I read this book continuously with the later writings as a post-Romantic critique of Enlightenment values that exposes the moral prejudices embedded in metaphysical thinking. Many interpretations of Nietzsche’s late critique of morality focus on its psychological foundation and highlight the task of overcoming nihilism. My project, by contrast, focuses on the aesthetics of Nietzsche’s tragic philosophy, with an emphasis on its cultural, social-political dimensions. This is a controversial topic in Anglophone Nietzsche scholarship. Some disregard this dimension of Nietzsche’s work by discussing his promotion of individualism or his naturalism. Others embrace his meritocratic elitism or affirm his philosophy in the service of democratic pluralism, and some criticize his aristocratic radicalism, highlight its fascistic tendencies, or identify it with German imperialism. I take a different approach, reading Nietzsche’s philosophy as an immanent critique of Western culture which, while motivated by social and political concerns, does not culminate in a positive social-political position. Rather than endorsing the variety of cultural and existential alternatives associated with his supposed aristocratic radicalism, I argue that Nietzsche ironically exposes such alternatives as the duplicitous symptoms of a characteristically modern malaise. Nietzsche’s tragic ideal seduces his readers with the appeal of life-affirmation. This seduction masks his critique of our chiefly unconscious tendency toward self-idealization, which forms the religious basis of our collective belief in civilizational progress.