Camels, Lions And Children

Nietzsche absorbed the principles of Ancient Greek culture, and Classical German Aesthetics and assimilated them into his own unique style of aesthetic ideology. From the unbridled reveling of "Dionysian" principles, to the vitriolic rhetoric of his "Anti-Christian" beliefs; from the absolute deconstruction of his "revaluation of all values" to the ode to life itself embodied in his "will to power" theory, Nietzsche, after undergoing his own "Three Metamorphoses" was ultimately able to reduce the study of aesthetics to the problem of individual survival.As a "camel", the young Nietzsche subjected himself to the authority of the Classics, an authority which had already been marked with the seal of Platonism and metaphysics. Carrying the psychological burden of those two guiding principles of traditional that, "You should not" and "You cannot", the camel wandered into the great lonely desert. Without a doubt, this type of psyche was destined both to accept tradition, and, naturally, to continue carrying it on. But the attraction of Greek culture, the call of the German Spirit, and the inspiration of classical aesthetics changed the camel, so that he was no longer willing to allow his own desires to be controlled by a foreign authority. Thus he resolved to conquer himself, and become ruler of his desert.After he changed into a "lion", Nietzsche became "a glimmering scaled beast, every scale inscribed with the shining golden words’You should’!" The lion had the ability to cause great destruction, and he used this power of obliteration to create a new habitat on the ruins of the desert. He dissected art, so that others could see the intricacies of this other form of human expression, so that they could understand the true meaning of life, and feel true pain and pleasure. Faced with the pain and suffering of human life, he found that only the passionate struggle of Apollo and Dionysus could free him from the nightmare of reality. But the lion was unable to create new value-"I want" required yet another spiritual metamorphosis.The newborn "child", the new Nietzsche born like a phoenix from the ashes of his old self, raised high the standards of "will to power" and "eternal recurrence" in a gesture of defiance against all of metaphysics. He attempted to use his theories involving recurrence and his strength of will to negate the sick body created by metaphysics, and to affirm the vitality of life. In this way he strove to free the individual, the body that had been trapped under the weight of Platonism, Christianity, Rational Enlightenment, and all other products of traditional Western Aesthetic philosophy. He focused specifically on growth, otherness, and emotion, for he felt that these were the qualities that made up the foundation of a strong body. Nietzsche’s ideas helped lead the way for the about face of the school of aesthetics.