Abstract

This book is a presentation of Nietzsche’s philosophy from the viewpoint of tragedy. The book is divided into three parts. The first considers Nietzsche’s tragic world view generally, the question of nihilism, and the problem of truth. Nietzsche’s understanding of the tragic stems from his interpretation of Greek tragedy in terms of its Dionysian-Apollonian dimensions. Dionysus, then, both destructive and creative, becomes the symbol for the tragic world. The "tragic spirit," furthermore, is "pessimism and its overcoming." Nietzschean nihilism, the collapse of the Christian God and transcendent reality, is oriented toward affirmation: there can be no creativity without negation. Nietzsche rejects the traditional notion of truth but "discovers a new source of knowledge: Intuition". Pfeffer might have developed this notion of "Intuition" more fully.