Nietzsche's use of art as a model for understanding life


Two crucial points about art. 
 
1. Pleasurable Illusion

We experience a representation as if real
	We respond with emotion. 
Art holds reality at a distance. 
	 
The aesthetic attitude involves treating experience as not real, as if merely a
play, or picture
This why artwork not true but convincing, or whatever-- art provides a successful
illusion

We are enjoying illusion without asking whether it be true
	What it depicts is unreal
And yet we are not indifferent
	We respond

2. Multiple interpretations are possible.  
	 Take for example the literary works we discussed. How you interpret depends
upon your individual personality. Disagreements come because responses are
personal. 
 

We may be interpreting without thinking that any one interpretation definitive. 
	Rather, we know that different people will judge differently
 

Nietzsche, a philosopher, would read philosophy, including his own book, as if it
is literature 

Now, let us treat the world similarly. 
Our interpretations may 'work', without needing to be true
	for Nietzsche wants to criticize the notion of objective truth

Nietzsche interprets the world
	good and evil
	original sin
as if the world were an artwork. 
Artworks can have multiple interpretations, each plausible or not. 

But not true to the facts for
	Maybe there are no facts, i.e. no evidence that must enter every
interpretation
	There are only interpretations. 
Theories are judged by truth to facts. How do you judge interpretations? 
	Perhaps in the way we judge interpretations of art. Everyone knows how these
can be personal

An interpretation is plausible, original, and creative
	True to the facts But not (maybe!) in the interesting cases true. 

 
The crucial difference between an artwork and a statement of fact
The statement aims for truth, for matching the world as it is
Art does not. 
Not true to the world, but another (merely illusory) world

The artwork is merely a successful illusion
	It doesn't have to be true to be pleasurable. It seems to assert facts, but
it doesn't matter for aesthetic pleasure whether those facts be true