Essay Questions

According to Nietzsche, what does the tragedy of Oedipus teach us about knowledge?

Oedipus, of course, is ancient Greek tragic hero who in his attempt to escape the prophecy that he will one day murder his father and marry his mother winds up doing those very things. Nietzsche transforms Oedipus into a Christ-like figure whose acquisition of a greater knowledge than the average person places him at a more elevated level. But that uncommon status comes at a price: he must be sacrificed for the greater good. The underlying message is bit like the lesson which Peter Parker learns when he becomes Spiderman. Those blessed with being uncommon go against the strain of the natural world and unnatural entities must be eliminated in order for the natural course of things to continue. Once Oedipus solves the Riddle of the Sphinx, his fate is sealed, but out of that fate eventually comes the reconciliation of the tragic line of his lineage.

What is the defining attribute of the “theoretical man” that Nietzsche explains as an evolutionary step from the Socratic illusion?

The theoretical man represents an evolution from Socratic illusion precisely because his desire is to tear off the veil and confront the truth with logic. This is the type of person who can find wonder in everything because everything provides opportunity for learning. The essence of the theoretical man is rejection and acceptance. Herd mentality is supported and sustained by the expectation of conventional thinking and the willingness to accept it uncritically By contrast, the theoretical man is willing to reject everything that history has said is so when rational thinking insists it is not. But these are not the attributes which define him.

To that dubious distinction belongs what happens when the theoretical man has gloried in stripping away the veil to reveal the truth: he no longer keeps pulling the veil away. He is satisfied with himself for digging deeper until he discovered the genuine truth. But Nietzsche, such a thing does not exist. Any genuine truth is just another illusion so, in reality, the theoretical man lives his entire life in the comfort of the illusion that an absolute truth actually exists and can be discovered.

Who is emblematic symbol of the Nietzschean concept of the “naïve artist” and what does that mean?

The naïve artist is the representative of the Apollonian side of Greek culture dichotomy, standing in opposition to the Dionysian. The Apollonian is concerned with beauty and order and while the Dionysian stands for chaos and the non-representational. The tragic artist is situated at the top of the philosopher’s pecking order while the operatic artist occupies the lowest rung. Therefore the naïve artist is stuck in the middle between those two extremes and is one who is far more obsessed with surface beauty than the deeper realms of conflict. The poet Homer is identified specifically as the ultimate example of the naïve artist because his epic poems present the illusion of moral heroes who vainly attempt to replicate the illusions of the gods of Olympus.