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Craig White's Literature Courses Critical Sources
Notes to Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy
Chapter 15 |
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71 influence of Socrates, cf. shadow, regeneration of art . . . and by its own infinity guarantees the infinity of art.
Practically all eras and stages of civilization have tried, with profound displeasure, to free themselves from the Greeks, because all their achievements . . . a poor copy, a caricature.
Everything not native to
71-2 Who were those people, they asked, who, although / their historic splendor was ephemeral, their institutions ridiculously restricted, and their moral competence questionable, although, indeed, they practiced disagreeable vices, could still lay claim to dignity and pre-eminence among nations as a genius does among the masses?
72 Greeks are the charioteers of our own and all other cultures.
Socrates prototype of theoretical man
Whenever the truth is uncovered, the artist gazes enraptured at whatever covering remains, but theoretical man takes an infinite delight and satisfaction in the covering that has been cast aside, and takes his greatest delight in a process of uncovering that is always successful, and always achieved by his own efforts.
73 Lessing: greater delight in quest for truth than in the truth itself
Fundamental secret of science
Profound illusion: rational thought,
guided by causality, can penetrate to the depths of being, and that it is
capable not only of knowing but even of correcting being. This sublime
metaphysical illusion is an instinctual accompaniment to science, and repeatedly
takes it to its limits, where it must become
art: which is the
true purpose of this mechanism.
Socrates lived and died by this instinct of science; therefore the image of the dying Socrates, man freed by insight and reason, became the emblem over the portals of science.
If reason proves insufficient, the myth must also be invoked
Waves of philosophical schools, thirst for knowledge heretofore unimagined
>lawfulness of an entire solar system
Socrates as turning point, vortex of world history
Used not in service of knowledge but practical, selfish goals of individuals and nations, wars, migrations
Genocide except that art, especially as religion and science, appears as remedy and prevention
74 Socrates attributes power of panacea to knowledge and science
> error as embodiment of evil
Even the most sublime noble deeds . . . described as teachable.
Desire to complete that conquest via maieutic and pedagogical influences on noble youths with aim of producing genius
75 science rushing irresistibly to its limits, where optimism collapses
> a new form of knowledge, tragic knowledge
Zest for knowledge transformed into tragic resignation and need for art
Knock at present and future: music-making Socrates?
Such is the magic of those battles that all who witness them must also join the fray!
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