In Taberna

"From Kant on, the philosophy of the nineteenth century assumes more and more the character of a philosophy of will. In Kantian thought we find but little preoccupation with the human will, less even than in Luther's, whose essay De servo arbitrio belongs among the fundamental writings of Protestantism. But Schopenhauer declared the human will to be "the thing as such." This identification would have  been incomprehensible to Kant, for Kant declared it impossible to understand and define the nature of things, "as such." The idea of the supremacy of the human will culminates in Nietzsche's "will for power." That power was the foremost goal of the will was claimed by Nietzsche as passionately as it was denied by Schopenhauer. The manner in which Nietzsche campaigns for his will-for-power idea reminds one of Callicles in Plato's Gorgias. The philosophy of will has peculiar premises and consequences. It is obvious, first of all, that those ...

"The Dionysian trajectory of Hölderlin's poem now becomes stronger and stronger, its architecture changes, the dithyrambic comes to the fore. The firm, presumptuous construction of ancient verses is no longer sufficient, the hymn formed in free rhythms takes its place. The language in "Patmos", the pictures, the landscapes are Dionysian. The longing, pulling and tugging begins, the wanderings begin, which, unlike in the elegy "Der Wanderer", lead after the mouth of the Danube, to Greece, the Caucasus, Asia Minor, the islands, all the way to India, into the realms of the triumphant Dionysian festival and triumphal procession. Dionysus is not mentioned in "Patmos", but he is always present, most palpably in the "Mysteries of the Vine", where Christ and his disciples sit together. The mystery of the vine is a Dionysian mystery. If this Dionysian vine remains unharmed by Christianity, then we can say: it is good. Under it one can rest; in th...