University of Southampton Faculty of the Humanities DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY The Case of NieTzsChe: SchopeNhauer, WagNer, aNd The ‘MusiC- MakiNg’ physiCiaN of CulTure By ryaN harvey Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy SEPTEMBER 2016 1 2 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON aBsTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Philosophy Doctor of Philosophy THE CASE OF NIETZSCHE: sCHOPENHAUER, WAGNer, aNd THE ‘MUSIC-MAKINg’ PHYSICIAN OF CULTURE By Ryan Harvey The primary object of this dissertation is to demonstrate the nature and extent of Wagner’s intellectual influence on Nietzsche and to unravel the logic behind Nietzsche’s enigmatic case of Wagner. An investigation of this nature appears now more than ever to be necessary, and for two especial reasons: 1) in the more general sense, and as far as scholars on Nietzsche are concerned, the nature of Wagner’s influence must finally find its rightful place in the literature and can no longer be dismissed or ignored; and 2) in the more immediate sense, we must finally be able to address what Nietzsche’s case of Wagner actually is, and to that extent, we can only attempt this undertaking by first analyzing the nature of Wagner’s influence on Nietzsche. The object of our investigation will take a two-fold aim: first, to demonstrate the nature of that influence (Chapters 1 and 2), and second, to demonstrate how that influence became the basis of Nietzsche’s case of Wagner (Chapters 3 and 4). We will demonstrate that Nietzsche’s enigmatic symbol of the ‘music-making Socrates,’ which until now has never sufficiently been analyzed in the secondary literature on Nietzsche, is at the very basis of Nietzsche’s case against Wagner. In particular, we will establish that this symbol, which grew out of Nietzsche’s advocacy for Wagner and the promise that Wagner himself represented for the rebirth of a new European culture, increasingly came to symbolize the advocacy Nietzsche wished for himself as the promise for the rebirth of a new tragic culture contra Wagner. It is this symbol in particular which holds the key to why Nietzsche’s case of Wagner becomes a matter for philosophy. 3 4 Table of Contents Primary Sources and Abbreviations ................................................. 9 Introduction ............................................................................................... 13 The ‘Case’ of Wagner ............................................................................. 13 1. The ‘Case’ of Wagner ............................................................................... 14 Chapter 1 ...................................................................................................... 21 Anticipating the Birth of a Tragedy .............................................. 21 1. From the Ancient Music Drama to the Artwork of the Future.................................................................................................................. 22 2. Life as the Great Ultimate, a Law unto Itself… ............................. 30 3. The Philosopher of Life: the Will in Representation ................ 31 4. The Philosopher of Life: the Authority of Insight ...................... 41 5. The Artist of Life: a Flesh-and-Blood Illustration of What Schopenhauer Calls a Genius ................................................................... 47 6. The Culture of Life: Anticipating the Rebirth of Tragedy ....... 55 Chapter 2 ...................................................................................................... 63 The Philosopher as Physician of Culture .................................. 63 1. From the ‘Music-Making Socrates’ to the Problem of Modernity .......................................................................................................... 64 2. Two Clues from Plato’s Phaedo .......................................................... 65 3. The ‘Meaning’ of Plato’s Phaedo ......................................................... 68 4. Socrates! Make Music! ............................................................................ 70 Chapter 3 ...................................................................................................... 85 From Physician of Culture to “Physician, Heal Thyself!” . 85 1. An Attempt at a Self-Criticism............................................................. 86 2. The Pessimism of Degenerating Instincts vs. the Pessimism of Strength ........................................................................................................ 90 5 3. Nietzsche’s Post-Wagnerian Vitalist Thesis ................................. 98 4. From the Philosopher as Physician of Culture to “Physician, Heal Thyself!” ............................................................................................... 101 5. Nietzsche Contra Wagner, or: “Wagner is Altogether the Foremost Name in Ecce Homo” ............................................................ 112 6. Towards the Dionysian Future of Music ..................................... 118 Chapter 4 ................................................................................................... 121 Music as the Late Fruit of Every Culture ................................ 121 1. A Music Without a Future .................................................................. 122 2. Music as the Late Fruit of Every Culture .................................... 129 3. Nietzsche’s Dangerous Game ........................................................... 133 4. The Case of Nietzsche .......................................................................... 140 5. Conclusion ................................................................................................ 147 Appendix ................................................................................................... 149 On the Uses and Disadvantages of Wagner for Life ......... 149 1. Nietzsche’s Break with Wagner: a Conventional Story? ..... 150 2. The ‘Cause’ of the Break? ................................................................... 156 3. Pledging Allegiance .............................................................................. 161 4. Plans… ........................................................................................................ 168 5. Un Petit Faux Pas de Jeunesse ......................................................... 171 6. The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music or… “I Will Say What Children Say When They Have Done Something Foolish: I Will Never Do It Again.” ........................................................................... 173 7. ‘Proffering More Allegiance’ ............................................................. 183 8. Brahms, Bayreuth…and Some Silk Underwear ....................... 189 9. Fomenting the “Verbal Instrumentalist” .................................... 196 6 For my parents 7 8 Primary Sources and Abbreviations For the purposes of the present work, I have relied on the most recent critical editions of Nietzsche’s unabridged notebooks translated into English and published through Stanford University Press. While it is only very recently that Stanford University Press has begun this project, their endeavor has been to publish, for the first time, the Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche: Sämtliche Werke, Kritische Studienausgabe in fifteen volumes into English based on the definitive edition of Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari. While only six of the total nineteen volumes from the Stanford series have been published to date, the results published from their series have been very impressive so far in their philological attention to detail. Manuscript changes, deletions, and ellipses, comparative analyses between the unpublished notebook entries and the published works, and comprehensive annotations to the notes and aphorisms themselves has given the critical scholar far richer analytical detail than anything else published in English to date for the direction and unfoldment of Nietzsche’s thought during the periods in question. Accordingly, I have relied on their editions for both Nietzsche’s notebooks and published writings whenever possible. To that extent, it also means adopting the translation of titles which might otherwise sound unfamiliar to the English scholar on Nietzsche, but this is done primarily to keep the editions with which I am referencing consistent. With the exception of the editions published as part of the Stanford series, I have adopted the traditional abbreviations for both the German and English editions of Nietzsche’s works. DBCW: Die Briefe Cosima Wagners an Friedrich Nietzsche. In 2 vols., Published by Erhart Thierbach. Nietzsche-Archiv: Weimar, 1938-40. SL: Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche. Edited and translated by Christopher Middleton. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969. L: Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche. Translated by A.N. Ludovici. Edited with an introduction by O. Levy. London: Soho Book Company, 1985. KGB: Friedrich Nietzsche. Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Briefwechsel, Edited by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari in 21 vols. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1975 – present. KGW: Friedrich Nietzsche. Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Werke, Edited by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari in 36 vols. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1963 – present. 9 KSA: Friedrich Nietzsche. Kritische Studienausgabe, Sämtliche Werke, Edited by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari in 15 vols. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1980. KSB: Friedrich Nietzsche. Kritische Studienausgabe, Sämtliche Briefe,