McIntire, William (2016) Living as sublimated dying : understanding aesthetics and ethics from Freud and Nietzsche. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis aims to examine the connection between aesthetic and ethical valuations. Nietzsche and Freud both claim that values are symptoms of underlying psychical constitutions. I elicit an original understanding of aesthetic and ethical valuations through a synthesis of their works.

Beginning with drive theory, I argue that the death-drive is an entropic principle guiding all psychical life. Another original contribution is my conceptualization of Eros as reducible to the death-drive as the means by which the death-drive manifests itself as a homeodynamic process in open systems. I argue, fundamentally, that the way our drives are expressed in the world entail vicissitudes that are more or less incorporative of stimuli and content as a means of mastery. There is a bifurcation of drive expression concerning incorporation, which I articulate as being egodystonically oriented, as in the case of defense mechanisms; or egosyntonically oriented, as in the case of sublimation. Sublimation is the only indirect vicissitude that can be regarded as egosyntonic because it involves neither repression nor disavowal. Unlike other vicissitudes, then, sublimation is the vicissitude by which Nietzsche’s emphasis on incorporation is realized.

Following my analysis of the various vicissitudes, I demonstrate that there is accordingly a bifurcation of valuations. While most ethical theories involve repudiations of self-interest (our primary drives or inclinations), Nietzsche wants us to return to an incorporation of self-interest and an infusion of it into our relations. His arguments against the ethical theories of Kant and Schopenhauer echo precisely his arguments against their aesthetic theories regarding disinterestedness. I thus discuss the ethical as a corollary of the aesthetic. I conclude describing what it means for aesthetic and ethical valuations to emerge from egosyntonic vicissitudes, and I argue that the Übermensch is ultimately an archetype of egosyntonic relating. Nietzsche illustrates this with the metaphor of dancing.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 -- Aesthetics, Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 -- Ethics, Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900 -- Aesthetics, Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900 -- Ethics, Aesthetics -- Psychological aspects, Ethics -- Psychological aspects, Death instinct
Official Date:	12 August 2016
Dates:	Date Event 12 August 2016 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Philosophy
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Ansell-Pearson, Keith, 1960-
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	iii, 345 leaves
Language:	eng

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