An immutable disposition: The constancy of Nietzsche's thought as reflected in the 'Birth of Tragedy'

The Birth of Tragedy, Friedrich Nietzsche's first professional work, expressed both a unique philosophical vision as well as a profound criticism of the philosophy of the West. In general form then, this work is no different than Nietzsche's later works, which also contain an inimitable philosophy and a strident critique of certain Western axioms. Despite these broad similarities, Nietzsche scholars often view the Birth of Tragedy as an abortive first step in Nietzsche's early career. The hypothesis of the current work, on the contrary, is that the essence of most of Nietzsche's later developments can be found, in germ, within the Birth of Tragedy.;Given the linguistic and terminological differences between the Birth of Tragedy and the later works, the methodological strategy of the current work will be to employ a literary bridge that will function as a common interpretive framework. This literary bridge will be Nietzsche's own transitionary work, The Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life (ADHL). The first step of the current work will thus be to closely analyze the ADHL in order to demonstrate its effectiveness as a common literary framework. From here the fundamental nature of the ADHL will be related to the later works, thus demonstrating a strong continuity of the former with the latter, as well as the continued reliance of the later works on the fundamental ideas found in the ADHL. Finally, these same similarities will be shown to exist in both the critical and positive aspects, respectively, of the Birth of Tragedy.;The first conclusion that the current work will draw is that while Nietzsche's linguistic and terminological usage in the Birth of Tragedy creates certain conceptual problems, the essence of this work is in no substantial way different from the later works. In both a critical and positive sense, the developments of the Birth of Tragedy anticipate, and in many ways elucidate, the core developments of the later works. Second, these similarities are more clearly viewed through the lens of our literary bridge, the ADHL, which illuminates Nietzsche's fundamental dispositional reorientation, a reorientation that is constant from his first work to his last.