Alternatively called this “despotic logician” and “the vortex and turning point of so-called world history,” Socrates represents a radical starting point in the history of philosophy. For Friedrich Nietzsche, the father of rationalism offers a vision of the world that is ultimately incapable of putting forward life-affirming values. Locating value only in what is logical, Socratism rejects anything that cannot be rationally explained. Nietzsche challenges this view for its failure to motivate a life-affirming interpretation of an existence that is, by definition, irrational. In a deathbed conversion, Socrates abandons his logically rigid ethos for one who is capable of embracing art. Nietzsche points to this music-creating Socrates as the unifier of two divergent worldviews – reason and myth – which together affirm life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayNietzsche considers the music creator Socrates to be the founder of a tragic and rational culture. Faced with death, Socrates is unable to banish the tragedy of reason from the forefront of his mind. He was finally converted to the saving power of this art against which he protested for most of his life. An inclination of his conscience convinces him to let himself be overcome by the desire for art, functioning as the redemption of an otherwise irrational existence. Socratism dictates that virtue is knowledge, and nothing else: so the virtuous man must make no room for himself or himself. his research for art or myth, but acts rather as a dialectician. He follows knowledge to its limits out of logical necessity, lest he commit sin through ignorance. It is this dialectic which, in Nietzsche's eyes, motivates Aeschylus' plays and their mechanical character, leading to "his usual deus ex machina", where even God must defend himself through argument. This marks a radical contortion of the tragic genre. The loss of value attributed to illusion reflects, for Nietzsche, the “disintegration of Dionysian tragedy.” As Sorgner explains, Nietzsche considered tragedy proper to require "a Dionysian foundation, which means that it must be based on the idea that the world is contradictory, that it is constantly changing and that ultimately account, we do not receive any messages. an additional reward for all the suffering we must endure during our lives…” For Nietzsche, the essence of tragedy is therefore the acceptance of a rational contradiction. With the loss of this contradiction, tragedy fails to fulfill its cathartic promise for rational beings. Aesthetic Socratism, as embodied in the plays of Aeschylus and those that followed him, attempted to rationalize this tragic notion to the point of distorting and ultimately ruining it. But Nietzsche points out that even Socrates must rely on a myth to defend his worldview, even if he does not recognize it. The role of myth within rationalism is a kind of slavish devotion to reason. Where reason and science reach their limits, the idea emerges that to know is to create and shape. In other words, it suggests that science "is capable, not only of understanding existence, but even of correcting it." Nietzsche calls this position “theoretical optimism,” which posits that “the nature of things can be discovered.” The pursuit of knowledge is conceived as a sort of remedy for the afflictions of existence. But even this position is a myth, an illusion, even if she doesn't know it herself. As knowledge approachesits limits, an existential problem arises: in particular when the search for knowledge fails to provide a rational explanation for our existence. It is here that Socrates, the creator of music, is born, when "with horror he sees how logic wraps itself around itself at these limits and ends up biting its own tail." The saving power of knowledge as the only source of value, sought for its own sake, fails to produce its results. The risk of nihilism demands a new type of knowledge, capable of embracing the illogical nature of existence. This “new form of knowledge erupts, a tragic knowledge, which, simply to be endured, needs art for protection and as medicine.” Knowledge of the irrational nature of existence is tragic. To move forward, to live, tragic knowledge requires a “medicine”, a myth capable of affirming life. The tragedy of this form of knowledge is that it forms a myth that knows itself to be a myth, and yet is understood as a necessary illusion. Only an art form like music, capable of affirming a tragic existence, can protect Socrates from a nihilistic disappearance. If theoretical optimism does not accept the help of the saving power of art, it turns in on itself and carries out its own destruction. Faced with imminent death, Socrates surprises himself by allowing himself to be invaded by the power of art. Uncertain of the meaning of the dreams that recently tormented him, Socrates decides to satisfy his conscience. In these recurring dreams he is asked to write poetry and make art, and assumes that they apply to the art of philosophy, which he has practiced all his life. In the last days before his execution, Socrates wonders if this dream “invites [him] to practice this popular art… poetry”. Socrates assumed that these dreams were a kind of comfort, an encouragement to continue the practice of that ultimate art form of philosophy. But something about him remains worrying. Perhaps he misunderstood this dream, which in reality aims to practice “popular art”. He explains his justification for following the dubious command of these dreams thus: “I thought it safer not to leave here until I had been satisfied by my conscience by writing poems in obedience to the dream. » Socrates reveals here that he did not feel entirely secure after living his life according to his own theoretical optimism. He believes that there is too great a risk in not obeying the order to embrace art, and he is obliged to follow it. This incident leads Nietzsche to wonder whether "the birth of an 'artistic Socrates' is something truly contradictory" or not. whether this represents a necessary step, towards which Socrates was heading even despite his obsession with rationality. The fact that Socrates was so moved by this dream and led him to act on it, despite his inability to provide any kind of logical understanding of it, indicates to Nietzsche a kind of unacknowledged conversion. As Zuckert says, “Socrates himself suspected that something was missing in his own activity.” Although Socrates does not understand why the dream obliges him, he follows its order: whatever may have "driven him to these exercises", Socrates tacitly admits that the things he does not understand "are not automatically unreasonable ". After all, perhaps there is a place for art alongside philosophy. Nietzsche poses what Socrates must think by following the commandments of his mysterious dream: “Perhaps there exists a kingdom of wisdom from which the logician is banished? Perhaps art could even be a necessary correlative and complement to science. » Whatever his motivations, and whether he recognizes it or not, Socrates hesitates when the.