216 Nietzsche
methodological grounds, prone to the temptation to have it originate in
an actual zone or to attach it to a fixed point If, like Nietzsche, we hope
to steer away from naturalistic and psychological reduction, and also stay
away from a divine perspective, we must find a way to elucidate the rich
life of the consciousness without destroying it, develop a language that
expresses more than the usual commonplaces, and move away from the
middle zones of socialized discourse. People who have this skill become
poets. Since the time of Plato, poetry has been the comforting or dis-
comfiting predilection and temptation of philosophers.
This affinity with poetry is especially salient in view of Nietzsche's
talent. As a phenomenologist, Nietzsche wondered how we really feel
when we think. As a poet, he was determined to articulate these over-
tones, nuances, niceties, and imponderables. The result is a series of
exquisite passages, such as the following excerpt from Daybreak "Where
is this whole philosophy headed with all of its meandering? Does it do
anything more than translate a constant strong drive into reason, a drive
for gende sunlight, bright and breezy air, southern vegetation, a breath
of the sea, fleeting nourishment with meat, eggs, and fruits, hot water to
drink, silent walks that last for days, sparse discussion, infrequent and
cautious reading, solitary living, clean, simple, and almost military
habits—in short, for all things that taste best to me specifically and are
healthiest for me specifically? A philosophy that is essentially the instinct
for a personal diet? An instinct that seeks my air, my height, my climate,
and my personal health by taking a detour through my head? There are
many other, and surely also many higher, sublimities of philosophy, and
not only those that are gloomier and more demanding than mine.
Perhaps all of them are also nothing but intellectual detours of these
sorts of personal drives?" (3,323i.\D% 553).
The expression "drives" is subject to misinterpretation because it
automatically brings to mind a system of primitive, basic biological
urges, which was precisely Nietzsche's intention. He depicted a highly
differentiated network of subde motions. The sensual and the mental
blend into a swarm of abstruse events in which even a "deep" thought