Update on Science versus Arts from Nietzche

So Friedrich Nietzche wrote a book called The Birth of Tragedy. He wrote this when he was still pretty young, so there is a lot of youthful idealism in it, and he’s a pretty big Wagner fanboy, but overall I can connect to some of his ideas. One of them has to do with the interaction between science versus arts. Overall, Nietzche is pretty against the sciences because he thinks that it is unreasonable optimistic, since a scientific outlook equates knowledge with virtue. Therefore anyone can be a good person if they just learn enough.

To illustrate this, he uses the legend of Socrates creating music right before his death. He equates the scientific movement with Socrates and his questions, and blames that for the end of art. The problem with this is that science tries to solidify and clarify all phenomenon both in the outside world and within the soul. However, once science enters the soul, it has no choice but to become art itself. In this practice, it ultimately has no choice but to fail. The music-making Socrates is the scientific world admitting its inadequacy and turning to art.

Speaking as a biology major that enjoys art, I definitely connect with this. What draws me to the two worlds is the clarity of the scientific world, but that has its limits. As I said earlier, there are elements that science cannot explain and only art can.

Later on, an older Nietzche went back and critiqued The Birth of Tragedy in “An Attempt at Self-Criticism” where he basically pulls apart his whole work. One of the more striking comments that he has is that he interpreted the world as being governed by a wholly aesthetic god that made art the highest work and value. He does present a pretty scathing review of science in BT, so I’d agree with this. Older Nietzche learned to appreciate different forms of interpreting the world, not just artistic ones.

The takeaway from this that I see is that the older Nietzche may not be wholly correct. The fact that I can see the point that the younger Nietzche is driving indicates something, so he cannot be that far off base. But also, there is merit to science, and limits to art. Both have to be acknowledged if we are to get anywhere in life.