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Description
The first argument of my work exposes what Nietzsche means by the term “dogma” when he claims that much of the Western tradition has engaged in the “dogmatic error.” To expose Nietzsche’s use of the concept, I look to Section V, “How the ‘Real World’ at Last Became a Myth,” from Twilight of the Idols, where he focuses his critique on Plato, Christianity, Kant, and Positivism. The second argument of my work exposes the influences Emerson had on Nietzsche’s response to the diagnosis Nietzsche provides in his critique of the dogmatic error. Emerson uses the metaphor of “the hours of the day” in Chapter III, on “Beauty,” of his Essays on Nature to express his own philosophical influences that informed his own ideas. I posit that Nietzsche utilizes this metaphor towards his genealogical approach to the philosophical history of the dogmatic error, as seen in Section V of Twilight of the Idols. The third argument of my work picks up where Section V of Twilight of the Idols concludes—with Zarathustra. I argue that Zarathustra, in Book II, Section 2 of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “Upon the Blessed Isles,” becomes the voice for Nietzsche’s response to the critique he wages against the dogmatic error. The fourth and final argument of my work ties these passages together by turning to the Preface of Beyond Good & Evil. I claim that Nietzsche reconceives of the “magnificent tension of the spirit” given his critique of the dogmatic error and propose a reading of this “magnificent tension” as ontological—between active and reactive forces in will to power. In this ontological conception of the “magnificent tension,” I argue that Nietzsche retains elements of traditional metaphysics while avoiding the dogmatic error himself, thereby formulating a unique way of viewing our own nature and the nature of reality that reflects our lived experiences. With this “magnificent tension” between the active and reactive forces that maintains the tautness of the bow, we aim with an arrow at the valuative ideal in becoming a free spirit, in becoming overman.
