Nietzsche's Aesthetics

My thesis is an interpretation of the hitherto neglected aesthetics of Nietzsche's mature period (1886-8). It is divided into two parts. The first part examines Nietzsche's critical aesthetics (where the aesthetic is the object of his thought) and prepares the ground for the second part, in which Nietzsche's aestheticism (where he employs the aesthetic as a mode of thought) is examined. Nietzsche's central philosophical concern is with the problem of value and he undertakes the specific task of the critique of moral values. His aesthetics contribute to this task in two ways. Firstly, since, for Nietzsche, the aesthetic is transparent to the presuppositions of life - abundant or impoverished life - he diagnoses morality by means of the aesthetic. Through the apprehension of the aesthetic aspects of morality - its beauty or ugliness, modes of creation and style - Nietzsche identifies and evaluates the fonn of life that underpins morality. He concludes that our morality - slave or Christian-based morality - is fundamentally impoverished. Secondly, the aesthetic provides Nietzsche with a solution to the predicament of morality. He recommends a mode of life - a noble ethic - that is, in part, modelled on his paradigm of healthy living: the artist who creates values from the abundance of life. Here Nietzsche advances an ideal that is broadly aesthetic in content. The success of Nietzsche's aesthetic critique of morality is dependent upon the extent to which he can maintain his fundamental dichotomy of abundant and impoverished life. I argue that, on one level, Nietzsche does succeed in preserving the value of the aesthetics of abundance; but, on a deeper level, he is compelled to recognise that impoverishment is intrinsic to all life.