The Birth of The Birth of Tragedy 7.5and are deceived into thinking that knowledge can "heal the eternal
wound of existence" (1,115). A mixture of these ingredients yields what
we call culture. According to the proportions of the mixture, a culture
will be predominandy artisdc, such as that of Greek antiquity, or religious
and metaphysical, as in the heyday of the Christian West and the eastern
Buddhist world, or Socratic, emphasizing knowledge and science.
The latter type has dominated the modern era. The principle of
Socrates brought us science and enlightenment, the long-term conse-
quences of which were the ideas of democracy, justice, and equality.
Knowledge would be the key to comprehending and turning around our
fate. In all areas, people could themselves shape and determine the his-
tory of which they are a part. Nature, which reigns so unjusdy by pro-
ducing unequal talents and destinies, could be corrected or at least
compensated for. There could be an end to the exploitation and enslave-
ment of people. Nietzsche saw these consequences in the Socratic cul-
ture of knowledge and cognition, and he therefore made his own (and
our) here and now begin with the Socratic victory of optimistic knowl-
edge over a tragic approach to life, as we will see later.
It is important to keep in mind that both Dionysian and Apollonian
forces were in play in all of the types of culture Nietzsche discussed.
Art, religion, and knowledge are Apollonian forms in which Dionysian
reality is both warded off and channeled. In this context, Nietzsche for-
mulated a fundamental ontological principle for the relationship
between the Dionysian and Apollonian in the final section of his Birth of
Tragedy. "The consciousness of the human individual may receive just
enough of the foundation of all existence, the Dionysian substratum of
the wodd, as can be surmounted by the Apollonian power of transfigu-
ration" (1,155; BT% 25).
Nietzsche derived his concept of strength and status from this onto-
logical principle. People and cultures that can incorporate a major dose
of Dionysian elemental force without cracking are strong and high in
status. This strength also implies that the Apollonian power of transfig-
uration be equally predominant. Strong cultures and individuals wring