Nietzschean Philosophy as Art in the early 1870s Nachlass
“the only criterion that counts for us is the aesthetic criterion” (‘The Philosopher: Reflections
on the Struggle Between Art and Knowledge’)
This paper focuses on one of Nietzsche’s most early articulations of the relationship
between philosophy and art in the Nachlass written between 1872 and 1875. Here,
Nietzsche puts forward a vehement critique of the ‘will-to-knowledge’ which he
perceives as central to the contemporary scientific mindset but also to the
philosophical method as traditionally understood. In ‘On Truth and Lies in a
Nonmoral Sense’, Nietzsche makes the claim that such an epistemology can never
provide a proper foundation for a healthy culture: “there can be neither society nor
culture without untruth….Everything which is good and beautiful depends upon
illusion: truth kills – it even kills itself (insofar as it realises that error is its
foundation)”. This conviction leads Nietzsche to foreground art (as opposed to
science) as the authentic foundation for culture: “culture can emanate only from the
centralising significance of an art or work of art”.
The process by which such art can overcome the scientific ‘knowledge drive’ is an
inherently philosophical one. Philosophy,
through its questioning of the
presuppositions of science, acts as a critique of science, eventually according to
Nietzsche demonstrating the impossibility of epistemological truth. But in this role,
philosophy is only of negative value. Philosophy can however, Nietzsche claims,
have a more positive role in the supercession of art over science. Here, philosophy is
no longer reducible to the ‘knowledge drive’ but itself becomes art: “Both in its
purposes and in its results it [philosophy] is an art. But it uses the same means as
science – conceptual representation. Philosophy is a form of artistic invention” (‘The
Philosopher’).
This early view of the centrality of art and its identification with a superior kind of
philosophising is contradicted by Nietzsche in the contemporaneous work The Birth
of Tragedy and rejected outright in middle period works such as Human All Too
Human. But significantly it can be seen to return in Nietzsche’s later work, most
notably in The Gay Science and Nietzsche Contra Wagner. Through a close reading
of the early Nachlass and a comparison with the comments in the later works my
paper will seek to make sense of Nietzsche’s most characteristic view of philosophy
as art.
Jones Irwin
Jones Irwin MA (NUI), PhD (Warwick) is currently a Lecturer in Philosophy at St
Patrick’s College, Dublin City University, Drumcondra, Dublin. He has previously
taught at the University of Warwick and the University of Limerick. He has published
widely in the areas of philosophy of culture and ethics. He is also Reviews Editor of
the Philosopher.