Abstract

Nietzsche’s early philosophy is marked by the sentiment that “only as an aesthetic phenomenon is existence and the world eternally justified (BT §5),” however, in aphorism 313 of The Gay Science, Nietzsche writes: No image of torment: I want to follow Raphael’s example and never paint another image of torment. There are enough sublime things; one does not have to seek out sublimity where it lives in sisterhood with cruelty; anyway, my ambition would find no satisfaction if I wanted to make myself a sublime torturer. Might Nietzsche be suggesting here that the tragic experience drawn from art is no longer a necessary feature of a justification of reality? In this essay, I will argue that aphorism 331 of The Gay Science illustrates that Nietzsche has significantly moved away from the claim that reality can be aesthetically justified as presented in Birth of Tragedy. I will then examine Nietzsche’s doctrine of eternal recurrence. Next, I will offer an interpretation of eternal return that presents a new justification of reality, one in which objective judgment can combat nihilism. I will further argue that, despite Nietzsche’s move away from an aesthetic conception of reality, eternal recurrence is best understood in aesthetic terms, particularly in terms of “theatricality.” Nietzsche conceives of life as a kind of play to be performed eternally, and I will demonstrate how this understanding of recurrence informs the psychological and moral question posed by the demon in Gay Science §341.