"...it is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified."
-Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche was an infinitesimally important figure in the field of philosophy and he wrote about many things that change the way we look at the world. One of his books The Birth of Tragedy was in many ways a criticism of the rationality that pervaded the intelligentsia of his time. The world is still very much pervaded by the empiricism of the 18th century that Nietzsche reasoned against, and I thought it would be relevant to discuss his views.
Nietzsche believed (as many of us do) that reason and knowledge have no intrinsic value and do not justify life. Since that is the case, those who pursue knowledge and knowledge alone (without correlating it to something that has deeper meaning) ultimately live unfulfilled lives. Therefore, to find purpose in life, one must find something that has substance beyond knowledge. Nietzsche believed that the only thing that properly accomplished this goal is art- that beautiful paintings, melodious music, poignant films, gripping books, and triumphant theater all give people a deeper understanding of human emotions and experiences. Since this is the case, it has meaning.
We spend so much time trying to put everything on this Earth into compartments. We want to organize, and rationalize, and theorize, and serialize until everything seems to make sense. We will never be successful though. There are always things that elude the curiosities of men- things that we will never understand or even... comprehend.
It is better to examine the beauty and art of this world and allow our emotions to be moved than it is to drift through life collecting information. Art is the most important thing on this Earth, that is a peaceful realization indeed.
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