TY - JOUR
T1 - The Vital Importance of Play for Humanity
T2 - Nietzsche's Fourfold Philosophy of Play in The Birth of Tragedy
AU - Prange, Martine
PY - 2023/8/1
Y1 - 2023/8/1
N2 - This article examines the value of "play" ("Spiel") for human existence, as addressed by Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) in his book The Birth of Tragedy. Whilst "play" has a wide range of meanings in Nietzsche's philosophy, of which the ontological or cosmological sense of "world play" is the one most discussed in the Nietzsche studies, I focus on a lesser contemplated topic, i.e., Nietzsche's view of the value that play - which I define here broadly as a life-giving and joyful inner or outer activity carried out for its own sake - has for human life. I argue, first, that play is of vital importance because it has the ability to transform human life from a life experienced as worthless to a life deemed worthwhile, and, second, that this transformative capacity binds the four senses in which play comes to the fore in The Birth of Tragedy as: 1. "aesthetic play"; 2. the "play with figures" artists play whilst dreaming; 3. "theatre play"; 4. human suffering as "comical play for the Gods," which Nietzsche also presents as "aesthetic theodicy."
AB - This article examines the value of "play" ("Spiel") for human existence, as addressed by Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) in his book The Birth of Tragedy. Whilst "play" has a wide range of meanings in Nietzsche's philosophy, of which the ontological or cosmological sense of "world play" is the one most discussed in the Nietzsche studies, I focus on a lesser contemplated topic, i.e., Nietzsche's view of the value that play - which I define here broadly as a life-giving and joyful inner or outer activity carried out for its own sake - has for human life. I argue, first, that play is of vital importance because it has the ability to transform human life from a life experienced as worthless to a life deemed worthwhile, and, second, that this transformative capacity binds the four senses in which play comes to the fore in The Birth of Tragedy as: 1. "aesthetic play"; 2. the "play with figures" artists play whilst dreaming; 3. "theatre play"; 4. human suffering as "comical play for the Gods," which Nietzsche also presents as "aesthetic theodicy."
KW - Friedrich Nietzsche
KW - Friedrich Schiller
KW - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
KW - Richard Wagner
KW - The Birth of Tragedy
KW - Aesthetics
KW - Play
UR - https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=wosstart_imp_pure20230417&SrcAuth=WosAPI&KeyUT=WOS:001080384600003&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=WOS_CPL
UR - https://www.academia.edu/112783040/THE_VITAL_IMPORTANCE_OF_PLAY_FOR_HUMANITY_Nietzsches_Fourfold_Philosophy_of_Play_in_The_Birth_of_Tragedy?uc-g-sw=3622739
U2 - 10.2143/TVF.85.1.3292008
DO - 10.2143/TVF.85.1.3292008
M3 - Article
SN - 0040-750X
VL - 85
SP - 33
EP - 59
JO - Tijdschrift voor Filosofie
JF - Tijdschrift voor Filosofie
IS - 1
ER -