From Resignation to Rapture: Schopenhauer and Nietzsche on Art and the Will

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Introduction

Can beauty soothe a wounded world, or must it plunge into the very turbulence it seeks to illuminate? Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche offer opposing answers. Schopenhauer imagines art as a momentary hush—an interval in which the ceaseless Will falls silent. Nietzsche, though fascinated by that diagnosis, flips its value: art should not quiet the Will but crown its frenzy with form and song.

This essay identifies the core ideas anchoring each philosopher’s aesthetic theory. We begin by outlining Schopenhauer’s vision of will-less contemplation, then turn to Nietzsche’s bold revaluation, and finally examine the precise points at which their paths diverge—and where they remain in dialogue.

Schopenhauer: The Quiet Eye

The metaphysical backdrop.
Building on Kant, Schopenhauer splits reality in two: the phenomenal realm, shaped by space, time, and causality, and the noumenal realm, which he daringly names Will—a blind striving that animates every appearance (Schopenhauer, 1819/1969). Ordinary life unfolds inside the “principle of sufficient reason,” where each event demands a cause and desire generates endless pursuit.

Aesthetic escape.
Art alone suspends that restless circuit. In the “moment of aesthetic contemplation,” we become “pure subject of knowledge,” a “clear mirror of the object” (Schopenhauer, 1819/1969, §34). Desire pauses, suffering lifts, and the beholder gazes on timeless Ideas rather than transient things. The bliss is brief—soon the Will reasserts its grip—but the respite hints at a deeper redemption.

A hierarchy of arts.
Schopenhauer ranks artistic media by their proximity to the Ideas: architecture discloses physical forces, landscape painting shows vegetative life, sculpture and poetry reveal human nature, and music—unique among them—“speaks the language of the Will itself” (§52). Yet even music serves a negative purpose: it lulls striving; it does not endorse it.

Negative redemption.
Hence, Schopenhauer’s aesthetic ideal remains quietistic. Art foreshadows genuine liberation, realised not in creation but in renunciation: the saint, the ascetic, the compassionate sage who turns away from willing altogether.

Nietzsche: Tragedy as Dance

A grateful, rebellious pupil.
In The Birth of Tragedy (1872), the young Nietzsche admits he “laboured to express strange valuations with formulas from Schopenhauer and Kant” (Nietzsche, 1886/2003, p. 24). He keeps Schopenhauer’s premise—life is saturated with pain—yet he refuses the counsel of resignation.

Aesthetic justification of existence.
Nietzsche’s decisive sentence reads: “It is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified” (Nietzsche, 1872/2000, §5). Here art does not silence the Will; it justifies its tumult, turning agony into splendour.

Apollonian form and Dionysian rapture.
Greek tragedy fuses two drives: the Apollonian impulse toward lucid form and the Dionysian surge of ecstatic dissolution. In the chorus, spectators confront suffering without flinching, yet the Apollonian frame renders that suffering bearable, even exultant. Illusion is no mere veil; it is reality’s highest flourish.

Toward affirmative redemption.
Pain is not anaesthetised but transfigured—converted into rhythm, image, and song. Redemption, then, is positive and creative. The tragic festival teaches us to say Yes to life, not by ignoring the abyss but by dancing on its rim.

Points of Contact and Divergence

Theme	Schopenhauer	Nietzsche
Metaphysical ground	One relentless Will, source of anguish	Chaotic ground re‑read as will to power
Role of art	Temporarily suspends striving	Transforms suffering into celebration
Attitude to illusion	Tolerated as pathway to essence	Affirmed as empowering fiction
Privileged genre	Music (voice of the Will)	Attic tragedy (music fused with image)
Salvation	Negative quietude, renunciation	Positive exuberance, self‑creation

Influence is clear: Nietzsche’s vocabulary—suffering, Will, metaphysical consolation—derives directly from Schopenhauer. The break occurs over the purpose of art. For Schopenhauer, relief equals repose; for Nietzsche, relief equals intensification and metamorphosis.

Why the Split Still Matters

Schopenhauer’s quietism resonates with Buddhist detachment and modern minimalist arts that invite calm reflection. Nietzsche’s Dionysian affirmation animates avant‑garde performance, rock concerts, and every creative act that forges meaning out of dissonance. Their dispute also frames today’s debate over whether art should heal or provoke: is beauty a balm, or a spur to new creation?

Nietzsche later extends the argument beyond the stage, urging individuals to sculpt their own character as the highest artwork—an idea that still fuels discussions of self‑fashioning and existential authenticity.

Conclusion

When art lifts us beyond everyday craving, do we glimpse a silent eternity, or do we feel life’s pulse grow louder and more luminous? Schopenhauer and Nietzsche answer the riddle in contrary keys. Schopenhauer cools the fever of existence through a will‑less gaze; Nietzsche fans that fever into a revel. Their dialogue sketches two enduring destinies for aesthetics—resignation and rapture—and our own artistic longings continue to oscillate along the line they first drew.

References

Hauskeller, M. (2015). Was ist Kunst? Positionen der Ästhetik von Platon bis Danto. C. H. Beck.

Nietzsche, F. (2000). The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings (R. Speirs, Trans.; D. Breazeale, Ed.). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1872)

Nietzsche, F. (2003). “An Attempt at Self‑Criticism.” In The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings (R. Speirs, Trans.; D. Breazeale, Ed., pp. 19‑30). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1886)

Schopenhauer, A. (1969). The World as Will and Representation (E. F. J. Payne, Trans.; Vol. 1). Dover Publications. (Original work published 1819)