Nietzsche, the Nihilism and the Art of the Transfiguration

Abstract

Nihilism is one of the major topics in Nietzsche’s thinking. Even though Nietzsche does not use the term «nihilsm» itself bevor 1880 the problem of nihilism bothers him right from the beginning of his philosophical career. Yet Nietzsche had already developed the philosophical concept of an eternal aesthetic justification of existence in The Birth of Tragedy (1872) – a concept which is a response to the threat of nihilism, caused by suffering which life brings inevitablyin its wake. In this early book the justification is achieved by means of art, i.e. a special work of art: ancient Greece’s tragedy. However Nietzsche is not only the one to boldly proclaim the death of God, he also has contritely to admit the death of tragedy. Thus he has to find a new way to avert nihilism by transfiguring life. Indeed he succeeds in this task with the notion of the «art of transfiguration». The present text scrutinizes both of Nietzsche’s antinihilistic concepts of transfiguration against the backdrop of his (also antinihilistic) philosophy of nihilism.