All right, the first time I posted this there was not response. Here's
another try:
Having only read this abstract and not the entire article, it still
seems right on. Any comments?
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Early Work Jerry L. Jennings, University of Pennsylvania
The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Winter 1988, Vol. 9, No. 1, Pages 57-76,
ISSN 0271-0137
Nietzsche began his career as a classical philologist, but he rejected
the pedantic and strict contemplative stance of his discipline. Nietzsche
wanted to replace mere "arm-chair" scholarship with a new
"super-philological" approach, that studied antiquity in order to gain
insights into contemporary problems and promoted decisive living action in
the present. In the course of
demonstrating his new approach, Nietzsche transformed traditional
philological studies into stimulating psychological analyses that were
equally applicable to modern and ancient behavior. By understanding the
philological context of Nietzsche's early work, one can better appreciate
the existential psychology he created in the years prior to changing over
to philosophy proper. Based on his studies of ancient Greece, Nietzsche
adapted a triad of personified metaphors to represent three different
psychological mechanisms for dealing with the so-called "horror of
existence." "Dionysus" embodied the therapeutic affirmation of life in the
face of pain, chaos, and destruction, and
symbolized the primitive instinctual nature that is at the core of all
cultural creations. "Apollo" symbolized the tendency to cover the horror of
existence with pleasant illusions of beauty, while "Socrates" represented
the self-delusive capacity to transform existence into a secure intelligible
world of order.
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George-- steppen@lightspeed.net
Psst, hey, you interested in some common sense? Go to:
<www.mcwilliams.com/books/aint/>
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