Nietzsche, Friedrich - Henri Birault (essay date 1966)
Henri Birault (essay date 1966)
[Birault is a French critic and educator in philosophy. In the following essay he explores Nietzsche's use of the concept of beatitude.]
There is something paradoxical in choosing the idea of beatitude as an introduction to Nietzsche's thought. On the one hand, beatitude never presents itself as an introduction, but as a conclusion; it is not initial or initiating, but terminal or concluding. It is always at the end of a certain itinerary of the soul that we find it—as the recompense, the fine flower or beautiful mirage of a great labor achieved, a slow maturation, an old nostalgia. Logically, then, we should not begin with it; at most we might end with it.
But on the other hand, and especially because we are now concerned with the very legitimacy of the notion, we may justifiably ask what beatitude really has to do with Nietzsche's thought.
What are the fundamental concepts of his philosophy? Tradition...
[The entire page is 6625 words long]
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