Publication Date
Spring 5-4-2026
School
School of Visual and Performing Arts; School of Communication
Major
Theatre: Acting
Keywords
Nietzsche, Socrates, Greece, Ancient Greece, Tragedy, Greek Tragedy, Philosophy, Dionysus
Disciplines
Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity | Ancient Philosophy | Comparative Philosophy | Ethics and Political Philosophy | European History | Metaphysics
Recommended Citation
Lowry, Kyle M., "Nietzsche and Socrates: Reflections of Redefined Virtue in Greek Tragedy" (2026). Senior Honors Theses. 1609.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/honors/1609
Abstract
The works of Friedrich Nietzsche were used to study how Greek Tragedy was “born” and “died,” particularly in relation to the rise of Socratic philosophy in Ancient Greece. The intoxicated “Dionysian” and disciplinary, artistic “Apollinian,” are the elements Nietzsche claims encompass and catalyze human experience; the former containing the primal nature of the Being, and the latter containing the ordering through which identity is formed and art is created. Tragedy, the art form perfectly balancing these two elements was “born” within the conditions of a Dionysian Pessimism, by which the inevitable life of suffering was redeemed aesthetically. Socrates introduced rationality as the foundation of a new virtue system, leading to the upheaval of Hellenic values and ultimately, the “death” of Tragedy.
Included in
Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Ancient Philosophy Commons, Comparative Philosophy Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, European History Commons, Metaphysics Commons
