Nietzsche 1

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Sarkis G. Sarkissian
Engl. 541
Prof. Liu
04/24/07
Attempt at Self-Criticism
Nietzsche’s preface to The Birth of Tragedy or: Hellenism and Pessimism

appeared in the reissued editions of the title book in 1886, in which he attempts to clarify
or reveal to the reader the original questions which led to the writing of the book;
questions which dealt with the origins of Greek Tragedy, and whether tragedy had arisen
out of music. Though this is the main question of the book, other questions arise dealing
with the “cheerfulness” of the Greeks and Greek art, and also the claim that the earlier
Greeks had practiced a form of pessimistic “cheerfulness,” which later gave way to a
more rational and optimistic “cheerfulness,” affected by the thinking of such great Greek
thinkers like Socrates and Aristotle.
In writing the new preface, it seems that Nietzsche feels that the book was
originally written in the folly of his youth, and considers it to be at times “saccharine to
the point of effeminacy”; this bit of self criticism maybe too harsh, but it shows the depth
of seriousness with which Nietzsche viewed his own work, and his intent of clarifying to
the reading public, as well as himself, that close attention must be made to his words, lest
they succumb to the dread Romanticism, which Nietzsche saw transforming into a
dangerous German Nationalism. For Nietzsche, romanticism is the “most un-Greek of all
possible art forms…a poison for the nerves, doubly dangerous among a people who love
drink and who honor lack of clarity as a virtue.” The inclusion of the preface clearly
reveals that Nietzsche fears having his work sublimated into a piece of German
Romanticism which simply evokes feel-good emotions. Instead, Nietzsche desired to
bring out a new world view based on the early Greek’s Hellenic Pessimism, which he
considered as being the most sober and life-affirming view offered by any human culture
to date; a way of life not easily succumbing to the illusions of metaphors and language
but braving the storm of life without turning one’s back to “truth” of existence.
The modern usage of the word “pessimism” has a negative connotation of being
possibly nihilistic or lacking faith, but Nietzsche questions whether this is an accurate
description of the word. Nietzsche asks, “Is Pessimism necessarily a sign of decline,
decay, degeneration, weary and weak instincts…among us, ‘modern’ men and
Europeans? Is there a pessimism of strength?” Nietzsche’s answer: Yes, there definitely
is a “pessimism of strength” which the ancient Greeks would have called Hellenism; an
honest and sober view of life based on the pessimism of strength and joy.
Fragment 1 of the preface deals with what the significance of the tragic myth was
among the “Greeks of the best, the strongest, the most courageous period.” Nietzsche
asserts that tragedy was born out of the phenomenon of the Dionysian. He then claims
that tragedy died because of the “Socratism of morality, the dialectics, frugality, and
cheerfulness of the theoretical man---how now?” In defense of Hellenism, Nietzsche
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argues that “Socratism,” instead of pessimism or Hellenism, can be “a sign of decline,

weariness, of infection, of the anarchical dissolution of the instincts?” If one is to
properly understand Nietzsche’s argument, one must understand that abandoning the
nihilistic pessimism for cheerful optimism of rationalism is tantamount to turning one’s
back on life and reality; for life or nature are not easily compatible with man’s need for
anthropomorphisms.
Nietzsche views the modern world’s embrace of science as another example of
man’s abandonment of a more life-affirming Hellenism. He wonders whether science is
a “symptom of life” which seeks to combat the natural nihilistic inclinations man, and
problem of life being illusory. Nietzsche asks, “Is the resolve to be so scientific about
everything perhaps a kind of fear of, and escape from, pessimism? A subtle last resort
against---truth?” Nietzsche states the main purpose of The Birth of Tragedy, in
Fragment 2, in different words this time, is “to look at science in the perspective of the
artist, but at art in that of life.” The balance of science and art will result in a science of
life, because art is always concerned with the human heart, or spirit.
True to the title of the preface, Nietzsche criticizes his style of writing by saying:
“It should have sung, this “new soul”---and not spoken. What I had to say than---too bad
that I did not dare say it as a poet: perhaps I had the ability.” The “new soul” is the
modern disciple of Dionysus, through which only art is possible of expressing its hidden
secrets. What is the secret of Dionysus? The Greeks will forever remain
incomprehensible to us moderns while we lack an answer to this question.
In Fragment 4, Nietzsche answers the question of what the Dionysian is.
Nietzsche sees Greek culture as gradually developing a “craving for beauty,” evident in
cults, new pleasures, and art, as being conversely related to an earlier Greek “craving for
the ugly”; the ugly giving way to beauty. But how can beauty abound without the
affirmation of the ugly things in life; life is both beautiful and ugly, Nietzsche and the
early Greeks would possibly say. The “craving for the ugly” is “the good, severe will of
the older Greeks to pessimism, to the tragic myth, to the image of everything underlying
existence that is frightful, evil, a riddle, destructive, fatal?” Nietzsche sees tragedy as
developing out of the madness of the Dionysian, and posits that perhaps the will to
tragedy of the earlier Greeks developed out of “joy, strength, overflowing health,
overgreat fullness?” He then goes on to say that perhaps “madness” was the first
“symptom of degeneration, decline, and the final stages of culture?” This madness
eventually gives way to a superficial optimism or “cheerfulness” that is “more and more
ardent for logic and logicizing the world and thus more ‘cheerful’ and ‘scientific.’”
Greek culture and the Western world resign themselves to optimism, rationality,
utilitarianism, and even democracy, but it should be understood that Nietzsche did not
argue that these ideas are not important to modern man. He merely viewed them with
healthy skepticism, in order to not forget that man’s primary concern is living in this
world to the fullest. The emergence of these new ways of thinking, according to
Nietzsche, are all symptoms of a weariness of life.
In Fragment 5, Nietzsche asks what is the significance of morality when viewed
in the perspective of life; as always Nietzsche is concerned foremost with life rather than
abstractions. In this section, Christianity is severely critiqued by Nietzsche as a symptom
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of humanity’s weariness of life: “Christianity was from the beginning, essentially and
fundamentally, life’s nausea and disgust with life, merely concealed behind, masked by,
dressed up as faith in ‘another’ or ‘better’ life.” Nietzsche views Christianity’s negation
of this life as a “will to decline,” “a will to negate life.” It was against morality that
Nietzsche’s “instinct” turned; an “instinct that aligned itself with life…purely artistic and
anit-Christian,” and best represented by the Dionysian view of life.
The final question that Nietzsche raises in his preface is concerned with what a
music that is not romantic in origin, the opposite of German music, would sound like.
What would the music of Dionysus sound like? Nietzsche criticizes his own philosophy
as possibly being “practical nihilism,” and refers to himself as “dear pessimist” and “art-
diefier.” Nietzsche fears, rightly so, that the young generations will eventually desire a
new “art of metaphysical comfort,” which will “desire tragedy as his own proper Helen,”
and lead to another type of romanticism. Nietzsche vehemently attacks the new “art of
metaphysical comfort,” because it just another escape from life.
Ironically, in what is the most up-lifting and life-affirming passage in all the
preface, Nietzsche advises us on how to live life pessimistically without resorting to the
type of escapism offered by romanticism, through the most natural and simple of all
human actions: “you ought to learn to laugh, my young friends, if you are hell-bent on
remaining pessimists. Then perhaps, as laughers, you may some day dispatch all
metaphysical comforts to the devil.” In the face of the “ugly” truths of life, Nietzsche
and the early Greeks laughed, and along with them such famous heroes of Greek lore,
like the proud Achilles and the wily Odysseus, who in face of life’s hardships; persevere;
live on in memory; and whose laughter echoes still.

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Nietzsche’s preface to The Birth of Tragedy or: Hellenism and Pessimism

argues that “Socratism,” instead of pessimism or Hellenism, can be “a sign of decline,

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