Nietzsche, Apollo, Dionysus, Superman, Nihilism, and the Frankfurt School
1. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Romantic Period
Nietzsche’s early work, influenced by the classics, Schopenhauer, and Wagner, is exemplified by The Birth of Tragedy, exploring the duality of the Apollonian and Dionysian.
Positivist Period
Nietzsche’s philosophy shifts during his travels, marked by a break from his earlier romanticism. A key work of this period is Human, All Too Human.
Zarathustra Period
Considered by many to be his best work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra introduces the concept of the Superman.
Critical Period
Nietzsche enters a phase of critique and denial, exemplified by works like Beyond Good and Evil.
2. Apollo and Dionysus
Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy contrasts the Apollonian and Dionysian elements of the Greek spirit.
Dionysus
- Darkness
- Irrationality
- Intoxication
- Cosmic Pain
- Tragedy (Music, Dance)
Apollo
- Light
- Rationality
- Vision
- Dream
- Solar Joy
- Tragedy (Word, Character)
Nietzsche argues that Greek tragedy’s decline began with Euripides’ emphasis on character and downplaying of the Dionysian chorus.
3. The Superman
In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche introduces the concept of the Superman, a new moral ideal beyond good and evil. Misunderstood by his contemporaries, Nietzsche’s Superman embodies the concept of eternal return and the power to create values.
The Death of God
Nietzsche viewed God as the antithesis of life and a negation of human innocence. The “death of God” represents the destruction of Christianity and the necessary condition for the Superman’s emergence.
4. Nihilism
Negative Nihilism
Nietzsche uses “nihilism” to critique doctrines denying important values. He links it to the will to power, seeing it as a sign of a growing spirit or, when exhausted, passive nihilism, the collapse of Western values.
Positive Nihilism
Nietzsche proposes active nihilism, a destructive force from a growing spirit, as the condition for creating new values and the Superman’s emergence.
5. The Frankfurt School
Freudo-Marxist Psychoanalysis
Influenced by Freud and Erich Fromm, the Frankfurt School sought to reconcile psychoanalysis with Marxist thought, critiquing the alienation of the proletariat in capitalist societies. Fromm’s work, including The Art of Loving and Fear of Freedom, reinterpreted Freudian concepts.
Dialectic of Enlightenment
Adorno and Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment critiques the Enlightenment’s role in historical horror and exploitation, arguing that reason can lead to barbarism.
Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action
Jürgen Habermas, a second-generation Frankfurt School thinker, developed the Theory of Communicative Action, drawing on Marxist and psychoanalytic influences. His major works include Theory and Practice and Knowledge and Human Interests.