30: Chemistry of Feelings (II: The Artist)

Who is the artist? Where does art come from? What is the future of art? Doing a comprehensive view of Nietzsche’s take on artists is probably too big a topic for any one episode, so here we will concern ourselves primarily with these questions, the answers to which all involve the idea that the artist is a sort of alchemist of the psyche, who works with the raw material of the soul in order to channel, redirect, heighten or deaden one’s inner feelings. The artist thus emerges from the type of the priest or the saint, who worked with the feelings of guilt and resentment. The artist is the type who emerges from the restrictions of a given religious mindset and dares to work his artistic magic outside of any institution or dogma. Is the artist therefore a benefit to society and culture, and a rebel against the rigidness of religion? For Nietzsche, it’s not that simple, because of the fundamental problem that art deceives. It draws its power from its incompleteness, its willingness to represent reality in accordance with drives or passions instead of facts, and ultimately dwells within the realm of deception. As Nietzsche himself is both an artist and a philosopher, he feels this contradiction therefore within him. Alas, the great philosopher, Nietzsche, is only fool, only poet! Lecture on the scientific contributions of alchemy by Walter F. Rowe: https://youtu.be/L6hTS3ajCBk Episode art: Joseph Wright of Derby - The Alchemist Discovering Phosphorus (1771/1795)