Nietzsche's Concept of Birth, Death and Tragedy in the Birth of Tragedy

Jipeng Qi George Moore Madness and Creativity Essay Nietzsche's Concept of Birth, Death and Tragedy in the Birth of Tragedy Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the most influential philosophers of the 19th century. He was the first person to feel and recognize the need to escape this boring world the people enjoy. Nietzsche saw the forming world even during the time of the ancient Greeks and the founders of Western civilization. This motivated him to write his first book, The Birth of Tragedy. The Birth of Tragedy was the first book written by Nietzsche to be first published. After the book was released, it was met with mixed reactions from the people. The mixed reviews did not seem to discourage him as he kept on insisting on the importance of his book. Nietzsche said that his book was to be used as scholarly work. After some time, Nietzsche produced a publication of his thoughts and misgivings on his earlier thoughts. Although the book was viewed as dramatic criticism, The Birth of Tragedy is considered to be the best work of Nietzsche as a critical thinker in philosophy. The essay discusses Nietzsche's Concept of Birth, Death, and Tragedy in the Birth of Tragedy The book by Nietzsche contains twenty-five chapters. The first fifteen chapters of the book talk about the nature of the Greek Tragedy. In these chapters, Nietzsche claims he was born at a time when the Dionysian met the Apollonian world outlook. Nietzsche tried to explain contemporary culture using the Greek model in the last ten chapters of the book. He expounds more on the declination of the modern culture and the possibilities of the culture being reborn. The tone used in the book is inspirational, and Nietzsche addresses the readers directly throughout his book. For instance, at the end of the seventh chapter, Nietzsche says “Lift up your hearts, my brothers, high, higher! And for my sake don't forget your legs! Raise up your legs, you fine dancers, and better yet, stand on your heads!”( Nietzsche 7 ) Many people do not take his work seriously due to these types of exclamations. However, one has to look beyond these texts to understand what Nietzsche is trying to put across. Despite these remarks, there are more interesting ideas in his book. Nietzsche presents a very biased definition of art. In his definition, the opera and subjective self-definition do not qualify as art. Nietzsche criticized human nature at high levels but still had great faith in humans. He rallied the p...