The Truth is Terrible - Nietzsche's Idea of an Aesthetic Justification for Existence

Brian Leiter discusses the thought of Nietzsche at Davidson College a few years back. The truth is terrible, Nietzsche tells us. There is no God, the universe lacks any ultimate meaning or purpose, and is filled with gratuitous pointless suffering. Our only relief comes with nonexistence upon death. Even the existence of the self, free will, objective value, and absolute truth and knowledge are wholly illusory. All forms & qualities are but mere human conventions, subjective expressions of our competing drives. The unquenchable desire for objectivity is the drive to transcend our finite bodily existence and grab hold of something universal, absolute, unchanging, and God-like. But there simply is none. So it is all too easy to become disillusioned and fall into an abyss of anguish and despair, turning away from existence and the drives, as suggested by the pessimistic philosophy of Schopenhauer. But Nietzsche urges against this turning away from life. For Nietzsche, existence is justified, but only as an aesthetic phenomenon. But what does this mean exactly? Brian Leiter explains. (My Summary)

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