ABSTRACT Tragic Philosophy and Human Desire: Bringing Nietzsche and Plato into Conversation with Contemporary Ethics Wm. Travis Coblentz, Ph.D. Dissertation Director: Anne-Marie Schultz, Ph.D. In his Retrieval of Ethics, Talbot Brewer complains of a fundamentally inadequate moral psychology within contemporary ethics, most importantly the limitation of human desire to the instrumental. In response, Brewer, drawing primarily from Aristotle, develops an account of human desire that finds fulfillment-without-ceasing within “dialectical” activity, that is, activity that has an object irreducible to a propositionally describable state of affairs. In this work, I pursue interpretations of Nietzsche and Plato, arguing that they both practice tragic philosophies, implying in turn that that they both held that fundamental human desire can be fulfilled only in dialectical activity. In chapters two through four, I trace Nietzsche’s development from a metaphysical description of tragedy to the practice of tragic philosophy that rejects any metaphysics from which one may derive a telos or morality. This allows a fulfillment of human desire in the constant failure of knowledge to grant the state of affairs necessary to fulfill desires-that is, disappointment. And out of disappointment, one may fulfill- without-ceasing the will to power in ever new forms of creation, thus affirming the activity that is life. Chapters five through seven offer an interpretation of Plato, in which he presents a Socrates who practices an erotic and tragic philosophy that shows a complementary relationship between the aporetic and constructive dialogues. Socrates’ ironic claim to ignorance expresses both the human inability to acquire knowledge of metaphysics and the possibility of the practice of dialectic to bring one into the presence of the Good/Beauty. Socrates’ practice of philosophy is both tragic and erotic, in that it expresses constant striving without the claiming of its goal (lack), and yet achieves the fulfillment-without-ceasing that can be the only “object” of eros. Both Nietzsche and Plato expose a rich view of human desire, fulfilled only in dialectical activity. Their tragic philosophies reflect their views of desire, and so offer resources for contemporary ethics both in terms of philosophical method and more adequate accounts of human desire. In terms of fullness and lack, an important distinction arises between eros and the will to power that may encourage further discussion. Tragic Philosophy and Human Desire: Bringing Nietzsche and Plato into Conversation with Contemporary Ethics by Wm. Travis Coblentz, M.Div, Th.M., M.A. A Dissertation Approved by the Department of Philosophy ____________________________ Michael D. Beaty, Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved by the Dissertation Committee _________________________________ Anne-Marie Schultz, Ph.D., Chairperson _________________________________ Robert M. Baird, Ph.D. _________________________________ Robert C. Miner, Ph.D. _________________________________ J. Lenore Wright, Ph.D. _________________________________ Jonathan Tran, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School December 2012 _________________________________ J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2012 by Wm. Travis Coblentz All rights reserved CONTENTS Abbreviations iv Acknowledgments v Dedication vi CHAPTER ONE: Ethics, Desire, and the Practice of Philosophy 1 Introduction 1 Desire and the Failure of Contemporary Ethics 1 Disinterestedness and Understanding Desire 8 Overview and Method 11 CHAPTER TWO: Nietzsche the “First Tragic Philosopher” 15 Introduction 15 The Self-Criticism as a Clue to the Relationship between BT and Nietzsche’s Later Philosophy 17 The Dionysus of The Birth of Tragedy 25 The Philosopher as Dionysian Chorus 41 CHAPTER THREE: Becoming What One Is Through Disappointment, Part 1: From Metaphysics to the Disappointment of Nietzsche 46 Introduction 46 Nietzsche’s Initial Cleansing of Metaphysics 49 From Wagner to Nietzsche: “The Cockcrow of Positivism” 50 Beyond Réealism: Nietzsche’s Creativity 60 Eternal Recurrence 64 Disappointment as the Means to Becoming Oneself 66 Justice, Pity, and Shame in GS 71 A Unified Style to the Drives 73 Da Capo: Eternal Recurrence, Disappointment, and Non-Instrumentality 80 Conclusion 83 CHAPTER FOUR: Becoming What One Is Through Disappointment, Part 2: A Metaphysics of a Tragedy of Systems 85 Introduction 85 The Tragedy Begins…Again 86 The Rise of the Will to Power 88 The Tragic Chorus Developed: Revaluation of Eternal Recurrence and the Will to Power 102 Eternal Recurrence 102 The Will to Power 107 Tragedy as the Practice of Philosophy and as Virtue 111 Virtue Ethics and Nietzsche’s Approach to Plato: The Self and Metaphysics 114 Conclusion 118 CHAPTER FIVE: Going Beyond the Hypotheses, Part 1: The Ignorance of Socratic Knowledge 120 Introduction 120 v Ignorance and Irony: The Wisdom of Socrates 124 The Irony of Socrates: The Ugly Beloved and the Ignorant Teacher 130 Aporia and the Purpose of the Constructive Dialogues 134 Virtue, Vice, and the Practice of Philosophy in the Meno 138 Conclusion 159 CHAPTER SIX: Going Beyond the Hypotheses, Part 2: Coherence of the Dialogues as the Clue to Platonic Philosophy 161 Introduction 161 Socratic Vision, Noesis, and a Theory of a Coherence of the Dialogues 161 The Role of the Constructive Dialogues: The Phaedo 166 A Hint from the Clitophon: Plato and the Call to Practice Philosophy 182 Preliminary Conclusion: The Practice of Philosophy in Nietzsche and Plato 184 CHAPTER SEVEN: Plato’s Tragic Philosophy and Moral Psychology 186 Introduction 186 An Extended Irony: The Healthy and Sick Cities 187 Revisiting the Problem of Socrates 196 Eros and Philosophy in the Symposium 199 Eros in the First Five Speeches 200 Eros in the Speech of Socrates 204 Beautiful or Erotic? Philosopher or Midwife?: Socrates in Alcibiades' Speech 213 Socrates’ Unexplainable Perspective 222 The Practice of Philosophy as the Fulfillment of Human Desire 226 The Moral Psychology of Platonic Eros 230 CHAPTER EIGHT: The Tragic Moral Psychology of Nietzsche and Plato 234 Introduction 234 Know Thyself: Phenomenology and Philosophy 235 The Practice of Philosophy in Nietzsche and Plato 240 Nietzsche’s Development 240 Plato’s Dialectic 242 Fullness, Lack, and Metaphysics: Eros vs. the Will to Power 244 Conclusion: Aesthetics and Continuing Pleasure 248 Bibliography 250 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS A The Anti-Christ AOM Assorted Opinions and Maxims (part of volume II of HA) ASC An Attempt at Self-Criticism (1886 preface to BT) BGE Beyond Good and Evil BT The Birth of Tragedy D Daybreak EH Ecce Homo EN European Nihilism (selections from WP) GM On the Genealogy of Morality GS The Gay Science HA Human, All Too Human PTA Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks SE Schopenhauer as Educator (from Untimely Meditations) TI Twilight of the Idols WP The Will to Power Z Thus Spoke Zarathustra Note: For Plato’s works, I use no abbreviations. vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to Dr. Anne-Marie Schultz for her direction and encouragement, as well as the countless hours reviewing and asking questions of the various drafts of this work. But primarily, I would like to thank her for leading me to a love of Plato. Thanks to Dr. Robert Miner for his many helpful ideas and questions, particularly in working through Nietzsche’s philosophy. Thanks to the remaining members of my committee, Dr. Robert Baird, Dr. Lenore Wright, and Dr. Jonathan Tran, for their helpful and invigorating questions, comments, and general encouragement. Thanks to the Philosophy Department at Baylor University for the funding and the opportunity to earn my doctorate and gain experience while doing so. Thanks to my wife Chrissy, who has sacrificed more than can be counted to give me the opportunity to study philosophy and write this work. Her resource always stands ready to make up for my lack. And finally, thanks to the various baristas, disappointing conversationalists, and that satyr-like coffee connoisseur who have acted as symposiasts, the inspiration of their drinks and relationships being reflected in the best of what is here written. viii DEDICATION To Chrissy Whose love and friendship light the path to virtue ix CHAPTER ONE Ethics, Desire, and the Practice of Philosophy Introduction This work offers a comparison of the nature of desire and its relationship to philosophical practice in the thought of Nietzsche and Plato. The comparison that I establish between these two thinkers, particularly with regard to the insights into the nature of human desire and virtue, offers resources for contemporary philosophers to draw upon as they seek to overcome truncated views of human desire that often inform contemporary philosophy. I aim to present a more compelling understanding of ethics and the practice of ethical philosophy than is currently at play in contemporary analytic discussions of ethics. Desire and the Failure of Contemporary Ethics In his Retrieval of Ethics1 Talbot Brewer claims that contemporary ethics, particularly virtue ethics, has failed to provide an adequate framework for understanding human motivation primarily because of its insufficient account of desire. I will not develop or provide substantial support for Brewer’s claims. Rather, I use Brewer’s work to show some of the difficulties within contemporary ethics, specifically virtue