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Noah Ciubotaru
Susan Judith-Hoffman
Philosophy, Literature & Life
11 May 2015
Friedrich Nietzsche on Asceticism
Due to empirical reality being merely an illusion, Nietzsche adopted the theory of
perspectivism, which claims that objectivity and absolute truth cannot be determined since
everyone perceives the world differently. This notion can explain why Nietzsche both
values and condemns asceticism depending on whether viewed from the standpoint of a
philosopher or an artist. In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche stresses the importance of
artists possessing the Dionysiac drive that prioritizes complete self-indulgence in pleasure.
In this work, he also criticizes Christianity for encouraging the rejection of bodily desires
and a repressive lifestyle. However, despite asserting that asceticism is harmful in these
cases, in an essay in On The Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche argues that this self-restraint
can prove to be healthy by increasing one’s feelings of power and control over oneself and
nature. By comparing and contrasting these two texts, I will examine the circumstances
under which Nietzsche found it beneficial or detrimental to embrace asceticism.
In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche emphasizes the importance of self-indulgence for an
artist through his discussion of the Dionysian drive. In this text, he explores the history of Greek
tragedy and assumes the role of the cultural physician to determine the factors leading to the
decadence of Athens. Nietzsche admires Athenian tragedians due to their ability to openly
embrace the meaningless and chaotic reality of existence through the creation of art that
possessed a balance between the dichotomous drives of the Apollonian and the Dionysian. The
natural Apollonian drive places a veil of illusion over the world, rendering it merely a semblance
of reality and supressing the Will. On the other hand, the Dionysian drive permits one to
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transcend this transfigured empirical reality and destroy the misconception that barriers of
individuation separate everyone. “Whenever this breakdown of the principum individuationis
occurs, we catch a glimpse of the essence of the Dionysiac, which is best conveyed by the
analogy of intoxication…causing subjectivity to vanish to the point of complete self-forgetting”
(Nietzsche 17). We can attain this realization that we are not in fact individuated beings by
entering a state of intoxication through revelry. Nietzsche suggests we can discover these
Dionysian truths of existence through the self-abandonment experienced while listening to the
music of the chorus in Greek tragedy or through the frenzies of the Dionysian festivals. “Singing
and dancing, man expresses his sense of belonging to a higher community… he himself now
moves in such ecstasy and sublimity as once he saw the gods move in his dreams. Man is no
longer an artist, he has become a work of art himself” (Nietzsche 18). These orgiastic
celebrations can be considered as the epitome of the submission to bodily desires, which
Nietzsche believes is extremely healthy for artists and provides them with creative inspiration.
Furthermore, in The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche condemns Judeo-Christian religions for
promoting an ascetic lifestyle. He stresses that Christianity strongly opposes the Dionysian drive
by encouraging nihilistic outlooks and overemphasizing reason. He felt the fixation on a superior
after-life instilled Christians with a life-denying mentality, since the only way to deserve
acceptance into this better world was through self-discipline and asceticism in this one. They
must abide must the many guidelines of the biblical scriptures in order to be rewarded with this
eternal pleasure. Nietzsche displays his contempt for Christianity when describing it as “the
feeling of disgust and weariness which life felt for life” and stating that it supports the notion that
“life must eventually be crushed by the weight of contempt and the eternal No!’ be felt to be
inherently unworthy, undeserving of our desire” (Nietzsche 9). He also intimates that these
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religions impede the ability of their followers to appreciate great art. The strict structure of
organized religion would confine artists to a severely systematic thought process, leaving no
room for impulsiveness and creativity. Art requires the acceptance of error, uncertainty and
chaos: concepts that are not embraced in Judeo-Christian religion with its one-dimensional
understanding of the world. Nietzsche also defines Christianity as, “a curse on the passions, fear
of beauty and sensuality, a Beyond, invented in order better to defame the Here-and-Now,
fundamentally a desire for nothingness” (Nietzsche 9). This passage may confuse a reader of
Nietzsche’s works since Nietzsche makes a contradicting assertion in an essay in On the
Genealogy of Morals, “the basic fact of the human will, its horror vacui, it needs a goal-and it
will rather will nothingness than not will” (Nietzsche 97).
Although this statement claims that it is better to will nothing than not will at all,
Nietzsche is still suggesting that the suppressing of desires is acceptable under certain
circumstances. In the essay in On the Genealogy of Morals, titled “What Is the Meaning of
Ascetic Ideals?”, Nietzsche brings up German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer’s views
regarding asceticism and aestheticism. Schopenhauer suggests that beautiful art is used as a
means of temporarily silencing the constant demands of The Will. As written in Schopenhauer’s
World As Will and Representation, “for a moment we are delivered from the vile urgency of the
will; we celebrate the Sabbath of the penal servitude of volition; the wheel of Ixion stands still!”
(Schopenhauer 231). However, Schopenhauer describes music as the language of The Will,
intimating that although the enjoyment of great art calms The Will, the creation of great art
requires The Will.
Nietzsche also agrees that at times, asceticism can be beneficial for philosophers, but not
artists. He argues that asceticism can maximize one’s feelings of power over oneself and the
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world by removing any dependence on external pleasures. The strength derived from this
isolation can improve their contemplation and comprehension of their surroundings. Asceticism
confirms one’s existence as a stable being who can resist incessant internal urges. Nietzsche
declares that:
“the philosopher sees in [asceticism] an optimum condition for the highest and boldest spirituality and
smiles – he does not deny ‘existence’, he rather affirms his existence and only his existence, and this
perhaps to the point at which he is not far from harbouring the impious wish: Let the world perish, but let
there be philosophy, the philosopher, me!” (Nietzsche 108).
On another note, Nietzsche discusses how philosophy was founded on ascetic ideals since
philosophers needed to disguise themselves as ascetic priests in order to gain societal acceptance.
Others were sceptical of the constant questioning of philosophers, since they threatened their
existing foundations of truth and morality, which they believed to have been stable. In order to
extinguish this anxiety and mistrust, philosophers masked themselves as ascetic priests so others
would fear and respect them. Therefore, they embraced poverty, humility and chastity. Nietzsche
explains that: “The peculiar, withdrawn attitude of the philosopher, world-denying, hostile to
life, suspicious of the senses, freed from sensuality, which has been maintained down to the most
modern times – it is above all a result of the emergency conditions under which philosophy arose
and survived at all” (Nietzsche 116). Furthermore, Nietzsche defends asceticism against the
claim that it represents “life against life”, but rather, it “springs from the protective instinct of a
degenerating life” (Nietzsche 120). According to Nietzsche, humans are insatiable creatures who
are always fighting against animals, nature and gods for power. These constant struggles send
them into a state of sickness and disgust with life, yet in spite of this torture, they continue to say
yes to life. However, this frustration still causes them to adopt a nihilistic view of the world and
encourages them to will nothingness. The infected possess a feeling of ressentiment toward the
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healthy and happy. Therefore, the two groups must remain isolated from each other in order to
prevent the spreading of this disease. For this reason, philosophers cloaked themselves as ascetic
priests in order to guide the masses suffering from this illness. The ascetic priests prevented the
sick from projecting their anguish on the healthy and redirected their anger towards themselves
to avoid placing blame on a scapegoat. The philosophers preached the acceptance of asceticism
and religion to ease the displeasure of the sick. If the will and sensation of the sick were numbed,
the pains of the world would become more bearable. They congregated the sick into a
community and disillusioned them into thinking that they were indulging in acts of will.
In Phaedo, Plato provides Socrates’ perspective on how asceticism can prove to be
beneficial for the philosopher. While the sentenced death of Socrates approaches, in prison, he
converses with Simmias and explains to him that philosophy is essentially the practice for dying
and death. Socrates claims that the body merely distracts the soul from achieving its main
objective of searching for knowledge and discovering universal truth. And since he defines death
as the final separation of the soul from the body, the philosopher should openly welcome death
instead of fearing it. The philosopher yearns to separate the body from the soul because the body
is constantly pestering him or her with demands to be satiated. He uses the example that the
human desire for power and wealth often leads to war and causes men to stray from the practice
of philosophy. Socrates explains that humans are prisoners to the body’s will when saying, “The
body keeps us busy in a thousand ways because of its need for nurture. Moreover, if certain
diseases befall it, they impede our search for the truth. It fills us with wants, desires, fears, all
sorts of illusions” (Plato 65c). As well, Socrates suggests that everything humans perceive
should be cast into doubt because what they believe to be the truths of reality are tainted by their
deceptive senses. This resembles Nietzsche’s concept that empirical reality is an illusory world
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that masks truths. It also relates to Plato’s theory that Forms, abstract ideas, possess the highest
truth, while the material world and its particular objects that humans experience through
sensation do not. Socrates elucidates this concept:
“Then he will do this most perfectly who approaches the object with thought alone, without associating any
sight with his thought, or dragging in any sense perception with his reasoning, but who, using pure thought
alone, tries to track down each reality pure and by itself, freeing himself as far as possible from eyes and
ears, and in a word, from the whole body, because the body confuses the soul and does not allow it to
acquire truth and wisdom whenever it associates with it” (Plato 65d).
Although the existence of an immortal soul is an unsubstantiated supposition, Socrates’ notion,
that the philosopher should not primarily be concerned with fulfilling the desires of the body but
rather with the quest of gaining wisdom and disclosing the world’s truths, is still valid.
To conclude, Nietzsche acknowledges that the complexity of the human condition makes
it challenging to prescribe one single way of life to all individuals. Although he ultimately
believes that the Will should not be suppressed and that bodily desires should not be rejected, he
determines certain instances in which it can be considered acceptable to embrace asceticism.
Personally, I agree that we mustn’t always give in to internal temptations, since focusing too
strongly on ourselves can hinder the process of observing and questioning our surroundings in
search for truth. We should be able to exist freely and stably without being constantly dependent
on external pleasures. However, I do believe it is extremely important to be in tune with our
inner selves and suppressing our urges to indulge in sensuality and curiosity would render life
dull. Great art often stems from the conflict between man and human nature, so resisting the
desires of the true self can be detrimental to the creative process.
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Works Cited
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1999. Print.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. On The Genealogy of Morals. New York: Vintage Books,
1989. Print.
Plato. Phaedo. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1977. Print.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. The World As Will and Representation. New York: Dover Publications,
1966. Print.