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Beyond the Birth: middle and late Nietzsche on the value of tragedy.
- Source :
- Inquiry; Aug2023, Vol. 66 Issue 7, p1283-1306, 24p
- Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Nietzsche's interest in tragedy continues throughout his work. And yet scholarship on Nietzsche's account of tragedy has focused almost exclusively on his first book, The Birth of Tragedy – a work which is in many ways discontinuous with his more mature philosophical views. In this paper, I aim to illuminate Nietzsche's post-Birth of Tragedy views on tragedy by setting them in the context of a particular historical conversation. Ever since Plato banished the tragic poets from the kallipolis, various philosophers have attempted to respond to his challenge to offer a 'defense of poetry'. What Nietzsche offers, I argue, is a distinctive form of response to Plato's challenge. I show how Nietzsche takes seriously Plato's worries, and even ends up in partial agreement with him: tragedy is not (unqualifiedly) valuable; it can be spiritually dangerous. Key to Nietzsche's account is a distinction he draws between two types of tragic audience. For the 'lower types', tragedy is – as Plato feared – dangerous. For the 'higher types', however, tragedy can act as a regenerative force. Finally, I discuss a distinctive form of value that tragedy makes available to a modern audience: tragedy can act as a stimulus towards the process of the revaluation of values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- PHILOSOPHERS
TRAGEDY (Trauma)
POETS
POETRY (Literary form)
SYMPATHY
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0020174X
- Volume :
- 66
- Issue :
- 7
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Inquiry
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 165125394
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2022.2164051