The transformative power of creativity in Nietzsche's saving illusion

pp. 87-146

in: Stephen Snyder, End-of-art philosophy in Hegel, Nietzsche and Danto, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

This chapter assesses Nietzsche's relationship to art and the aesthetic by examining the stances he adopts during the different phases of his writing. The end-of-art theme emerges in two ways, each reflecting his approach to the problem of dualism. An examination of Schopenhauer's influence on Nietzsche's early writings shows the structure of the first end-of-art claim. Whether art serves as a saving illusion or an opiate, if the background of myth cannot make the aesthetic experience real to the audience, great art will become a thing of the past. The second end-of-art theme discussed in this chapter, implicit in Nietzsche's later writings, focuses on artistic creativity in the wider sense. The second theme, which relates more to the person than to art, analyzes Nietzsche's frequent claim that life's old schemas are to be rejected to make way for the new.