What role does Pessimism play in Nietzches "birth of tradgedy"?

Question

What role does Pessimism play in the birth of Tradgedy?

How (if at all) does Nietzche's "pessimism of strength" provide an alternative to other "weakeR" forms of pessimism or even nihilism?

In your view, does Nietzche's "pessimism of strength" Provide a workable stragegy for avoiding what Nietzche sees as "the advent of nihilism" in modern culture?

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Answer 1

Nietzsche was a major advocate of an alternate kind of pessimism which is commonly referred to as a 'pessimism of strength'. But before we talk about how Nietzsche deviated from the norm in his views, I think it is very valuable to discuss what the norm actually was:

Pessimism, to most people, was a sign of decay. While most people understand that pessimist have a gloomy point-of-view, in a more concrete sense we can say that a pessimism tends to view everything as having the lowest possible value. The world, therefore, is as bad as it possibly can be, and the negative seems to prenominate over the positive.

At Nietzsche's time (and perhaps even now), most people who thought about such things thought that a person became an optimist when things were going well (there are, after all signs of things doing good), and become a pessimist when things were going poorly (with all the evidence of bad things around). Thus pessimists were usually people who were weak, whether they were 'down on their luck' or just outright insane. Pessimistic societies were likewise riddled with corruption and decay, soon to decline into nonexistance. To be fair, there is historical evidence for some of these views.

Nihilism might be seen as the ultimate form of pessimism. A nihilist concludes that the value of everything is exactly zero, and thus nothing can possibly have any kind of payoff or benefit of any kind. Any effort is doomed to be a waste.

Nietzsche, because of his re-evaluation of many value systems, is often mistaken (or slandered) as a nihilist. But though he does tear many things down metaphorically, he does so only to get a better view of what he sees to be the true values beyond. This is evinced by his idea of the 'pessimism of strength'.

This idea seemed to originate for him in studying the ancient Greeks, which is the topic of his book "the Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music". At his time, the Greeks were considered to be near-perfect people, idyllic in their strength of mind and character, and if anything naive in their optimism of the world. Nietzsche saw something entirely different. While he agreed that the Greeks were strong in many senses, they also had a love of tragedy, and the one rule of tragedy is that nothing works out in the end and everyone important dies. How, he thought, do you connect a healthy and strong people with a love of pessimism?

Thus the idea of 'pessimism of strength' was born. Nietzsche suggested that all forms of strength might be like that of a mountain-climber. When the greatest of climbers have bested all the peaks in their area, they do not sit back and relax in their skill... instead they go and find even greater challenges to overcome. Thus a truly strong person would tend to re-value things - local challenges (great for others) are meaningless, and a desire to continue to improve naturally seeks out, and even relishes in, all the horrors of the world that can possibly be stacked against it.

'Pessimism of Strength' is thus not nihlistic. Instead of advising no action as worthwhile, is suggests that immersing yourself in action is the true path to greatness. A superior man does not do what is easy - that is for lesser folk. Instead he throws himself against everything the world has to offer, and if the world cannot provide enough challenge, he then MAKES a challenge himself. In this way man is desitned to ultimately supercede nature in every way - a quite optimistic end, in a way, by taking the most pessimistic of paths.

Hope that helps! Keep reading Nietzsche - it's definitely worth it!

Answer 2

Nietzche felt that people were basically self-serving and if allowed, dishonest. His mantra was "Might makes right."
It doesn't avoid nihilism, if anything it encourages it.
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Answer 3

i imagine that honest is honest. To make up for it you want to deliver her right into a lesbian bar and enable her get picked up by technique of a impressive-warm lipstick lesbian. to carry you to blame, I volunteer to be there to exhibit screen each and every thing to make particular it is going properly. <----reserving airline fee ticket

Answer 4

Again, earn your own grade.

Answer 5

no