Episode 119: Nietzsche on Tragedy and the Psychology of Art
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
Mark Linsenmayer
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 July 2015
⏱️ 166 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy (1872). Nietzsche thought that you could tell how vital or decadent a civilization was by its art, and said that ancient Greek tragedy was so great because it was a perfect synthesis of something highly formal/orderly/beautiful with the intuitive/unconscious/chaotic. But then Socrates ruined everything! With guest John Castro.
Includes a preview of the Aftershow feat. Greg Sadler.
End song: "Some Act" by Mark Lint and the Fake from "So Whaddaya Think?" (2000).
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The partially examined life relies on your support. |
| 0:02.0 | Please consider becoming a partially examined life citizen, |
| 0:04.2 | which gets you ad-free access to all of our episodes, |
| 0:06.8 | hours of bonus content, and our not-school learning community. |
| 0:09.5 | Or support us on Patreon, where even a dollar's pledge yields great rewards. |
| 0:13.2 | If you click through the Amazon banners at partiallyexaminalife.com every time you shop, |
| 0:17.4 | you'll be supporting the podcast at no additional cost to you. |
| 0:19.8 | To learn more, visit partiallyexaminalife.com slash support. |
| 0:23.0 | Now please enjoy the show. |
| 0:31.0 | You're listening to the partially examined life, |
| 0:33.6 | a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point to set on doing philosophy for living, |
| 0:37.6 | but then thought better. |
| 0:38.6 | Our question for episode 119 is something like, |
| 0:42.6 | What can ancient Greek tragedy tell us about human nature and the relationship between intellect and art? |
| 0:48.6 | We read Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music in 1872. |
| 0:55.5 | Enjoying the discussion, get the text and lots more information at partiallyexaminalife.com. |
| 1:00.8 | This is Mark Linzenmeier from Madison, Wisconsin. |
| 1:03.2 | This is Seth Kaskin in Austin, Texas. |
| 1:06.1 | This is Wes Lohan in Boston, Massachusetts. |
| 1:08.6 | This is Dylan Casey in Middleton, Wisconsin. |
| 1:11.4 | This is John Castro in Manhattan, New York. |
| 1:15.2 | We are back to Nietzsche. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mark Linsenmayer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Mark Linsenmayer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

