(In Process) Faceoff: DGB Philosophy vs. Nietzsche: Part 1: The Birth of Tragedy

'The Birth of Tragedy' -- Nietzsche's first book -- marked a turning point, or perhaps better stated as a 'building-point' or 'bridge' , between Hegel and Schopenhauer on the one hand and Freud and Jung on the other hand. This is what makes this often over-looked book so important in the evolution of Western history and culture.

It was also the starting-point for Nietzsche's ultimate 'Dionysian-existential' message, which is the crux of the critisism that DGB Philosophy will lay back on Nietzsche's lap.

Nietzsche would complain years later that the book was 'too Hegelian'. My chief complaint against the book is that it is 'not Hegelian enough'. And this complaint, I aim at Nietzsche in even stronger and more relevant fashion, the more that Nietzsche's later work moved further and further away from Hegel's influence, and the more that Nietzsche's 'unbridled, narcissistic, Dionysian, existential extremist' message evolved.

You see, it is one thing to claim that 'we all need to live each and every day as passionately as we can live it because life is a blessing and we never usually know just exactly when our time is going to run out, nor the time of those who we are closest to'. Similarily, the positive side of Nietzsche's message is that we all should aim to live our lives up to our 'highest possible potential' -- to live our lives as 'Supermen' (or 'Superwomen) as it were. And similarily also, it can be very enlightening and therapeutic to talk about, and to strive for, 'self-empowerment' as a means to 'self-fulfillment' or 'self-actualization'.

These are all important, meaningful, elements of the 'positive, constructive' side of Nietzsche's 'humanistic-existential' message.

Even the 'deconstructive' side of Nietzsche's social, political commentary remains an important part of Nietzsche's overall message and legacy. Rhetorically, Nietzsche was a gifted, powerful, intellectual writer -- a 'writing hurricane' -- and Nietzshe was just getting his writing force started, his 'hurricane in motion' if you will, in 'The Birth of Tragedy'. There would be many Nietzschean writing hurricanes still to come, and all written before he turned 46. (For what it's worth, almost all of my philosophy writing has come after I turned 46.)


Let me clarify the way DGB Philosophy distinguishes between the use of the two terms 'destructive' and 'deconstructive'.

I use the word 'destructive' in the negative side of the word. Same with the word 'self-destructive'. If I say something like, 'Unbridled narcissism is ultimately self-destructive', or 'Unbridled imperialism is ultimately self-destructive', or 'Unbridled unilateralism is ultimately self-destructive.', in each of these cases I am making a 'negative' editorial association and commentary.

The word 'deconstructive' -- borrowed from the philosopher Jacques Derrida, 1930-2004 (and used by me, in word and/or in concept, in all of my 'Faceoff' essays) -- is meant to imply something more 'positive and constructive' than the word 'destructive' would normally imply, particularly in its most negative sense.

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Jacques Derrida
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the documentary film, see Derrida (film).

Jacques Derrida Western Philosophy
20th-century philosophy
Full name Jacques Derrida
Birth July 15, 1930(1930-07-15)
Death October 8, 2004 (aged 74)
School/tradition Deconstruction
Main interests Philosophy of language · Literary theory · Ethics · Ontology
Notable ideas Deconstruction · Différance · Phallogocentrism
Influenced by
Kierkegaard · Blanchot · Foucault · Heidegger · Barthes · Bataille · Husserl · Lévinas · Nietzsche · Saussure · Freud · Marx · Levi-Strauss
Influenced
Foucault · de Man · Stiegler · Nancy · Lacoue-Labarthe · Laclau · Butler · Eisenman · Said · Bhabha · Spivak · Caputo · Critchley

Jacques Derrida (pronounced [ʒak dɛʁida][1]) (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher, known as the founder of deconstruction. His voluminous work has had a profound impact upon literary theory and continental philosophy. His best known work is Of Grammatology.

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