Single Idea 18326

[catalogued under 21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 5. Natural Beauty]

Full Idea

Anyone who tried to divorce the beautiful from man's pleasure in man would at once feel the ground give way beneath him. The 'beautiful in itself' is not even a concept, merely a phrase.

Gist of Idea

The beautiful never stands alone; it derives from man's pleasure in man

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Twilight of the Idols [1889], 8.19)

Book Reference

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ', ed/tr. Hollingdale,R.J. [Penguin 1972], p.78


A Reaction

I love the insult 'not even a concept'! It's like Pauli's 'not even wrong'!