Abstract

In The Will to Power Nietzsche most provocatively speaks of "the world as a work of art that gives birth to itself." In The Question Concerning Technology, Heidegger speaks in an equally provocative manner of "physis as a poiesis in the highest sense." In this work I first attempt to shed light on what Nietzsche and Heidegger might mean by these statements. I do so in Heidegger by investigating the role of the nothing throughout his thought, with particular attention given to his idea of physis. My contention there is that an unwanted Hegelian influence pervades Heidegger's thought. I then attempt to show how this notion of the nothing might in turn illuminate the artistic metaphysics of Nietzsche. This final step proceeds by way of an interpretation of The Birth of Tragedy. Here particular attention is given to the role of "the Primal One" in The Birth of Tragedy and the dialectical relationship that holds between it and the Apollinian and Dionysian art impulses