Does all knowledge exist in the mind?
Can all knowledge be made intelligible?
To be beautiful, as some philosophers would claim, does something have
to be intelligible?
If so, we’re left with the following formula: knowledge = intelligible = beauty
Knowledge is that which is intelligible, and beauty is a form of knowledge.
Nietzsche attributes this formula to Socrates.
He was the one that said “knowledge is virtue” and that “to be beautiful everything must
be intelligible”.
But, Nietzsche responds with the following question: how do we explain music?
Music is something people find beautiful, but it’s not intelligible in the way many
other art forms are.
The beauty of a piece of music isn’t understood intellectually so much as it’s felt in the
body.
Music engages the instincts, drives, and senses.
You can feel the beauty way before you can articulate it.
So, if beauty is a type of knowledge, and music is beautiful, perhaps, all knowledge
isn’t intelligible.
Maybe, there’s a type of knowledge that’s more instinctive.
Nietzsche thinks this is the case.
He believes that our instincts, drives, and passions are a type of knowledge that’s
built into our body.
Think about how many millions, or billions, of life forms eventually led to the birth
of you.
You’re part of a long unbroken chain of life: there’s a great deal of information
stored in your body.
You can think of our instinctive drives as a fire burning within us.
Fire is powerful and destructive, but it also has the potential to create, transform, and
transfigure things.
A well controlled flame can become a candle that burns slowly, but passionately, and fills
an entire room with its beautiful scents.
There’s no doubt that our passions can give way to violent and dangerous impulses.
Fire has the capacity to burn, and because of this, many cultures demonize it.
We’re told to suppress our inner fires and desires.
We’re told to overcome our flesh and our passions with the mind.
Nietzsche viewed this suppression as an attack on life.
Our passions, instincts, and drives are what give us the feeling of being alive.
When we suppress these drives we deny life.
We create a discord between our body and our minds.
Our body becomes a place of war and turns on itself.
The mind becomes a tyrant, and we become slaves in our own bodies.
Nietzsche believed that we must be okay with allowing this flame to burn brightly, but
we have to learn to harness it.
Our intellect and our instincts must work in harmony together.
Our instincts and drives carry a wisdom of who and what we’re supposed to be.
Our mind can help this destiny express itself in a controlled and productive way.
When your instincts and intellect are in harmony, you live an authentic life and become who
you were always meant to be.
But, why live an authentic life?
Why does Nietzsche want us to harness our instinctive knowledge?
He realizes that we live in a world of imperfect knowledge.
He wants us to stop pretending that we know things.
Let’s stop pretending that we know what truth, good, or evil are.
When you come into the world, you can’t really be certain of anything except that
you are: you’re here, right now, feeling, thinking, and doing stuff.
You’re born with instincts, drives, and a capacity to build a rational structure on
top of that.
We can’t be certain that there’s another life or world after this one, so why should
we doubt our own impulses?
Why should we reject the innate knowledge that’s been gifted to us?
Is there, perhaps, more intelligence contained in our natural drives than our rational mind?
Nietzsche encourages us to allow the instincts to burn like a fire, but harness them and
give them a more beautiful shape by using the intellect.
Can you shape your intellect into a sail and use the flames of your passion to rise to
new heights?
This act of self-creation allows us to to reach our highest potential and give what
we uniquely have to give to the world.
To achieve anything in this world—to create anything of value— is difficult and requires
us to push ourselves beyond our current boundaries.
If we suppress our inner fire, if we make ourselves a battlefield between our mind and
body, we suppress the energy we’ll need to overcome obstacles that we may face on
the way to reaching our highest potential.
And, in doing so, we make way for mediocrity.
You are art and artist: your instincts and intellect can be harmonized into a uniquely
beautiful whole.
In doing so, you live an authentic life and, as Nietzsche would say, you
become
what you are.