Décadence em Nietzsche: A desagregação dos instintos no indivíduo e na cultura

Abstract

Considering the Nietzschean perspective, this research aimed to present some aspects of the Décadence Theory, limiting itself to its action with nineteenth-century art, with Socratic- Platonic metaphysical philosophy and finally with Christianity, relating them with the possibility of “diagnosing” a process of physiopsychological degeneration in the individual and in Western culture. To accomplish this path, this investigation approached the third phase of Nietzschean's work, as well as the writings of the last year of its production. In this circumscribed period, the author investigated in detail Richard Wagner, in The Case of Wagner, Socrates, in Twilight of the Idols, and also Jesus of Nazareth and Christianity, in The Antichrist, all written from 1888. To insert the research into the genealogical-physiological procedure through which the philosopher investigates the Décadence Art, some specific historical aspects concerning the décadence concept in the French literary movement of the second half of the 19th century were highlighted. Then, the analysis and physiopsychological effects caused by Wagner's music, illustrated by Nietzsche, provided the raw material to compare Wagner's ‘infinite melody’ with Bizet's ‘Mediterranean music’. In the next step, the investigation followed the path of physiopsychological décadence that manifests itself in philosophies such as Socrates and Plato, pointing its interpretation to the physiopsychological configuration of Socrates' decadence (anarchy of instincts), with the purpose of demonstrating that this concept was common to philosophers who misinterpret life, devaluing it. Specifically, the last part of the research focused on the Christian religion as the apex of the décadence; however, without forgetting that religions such as Buddhism and the Hindu religion (Code of Manu) are also considered by Nietzsche to be decadent religions, which motivates him to use these to highlight the difference in degrees of decadence between them and Christianity. Nihilism and the ascetic ideal are what all these religions have in common, symptoms of the physiological decay that cause the instincts to break down; however, Christianity was radically more harmful to the individual and to the culture. Therefore, all these cultural elements, especially art (Wagner's music), the Socratic-Platonic philosophy and the Christianity “elaborated” by Paulo de Tarso are masks to hide the “nausea” that Western civilization has suffered for centuries, signaling the harm it has done to both the individual and the culture. In this way, both (individual and culture) were the conductors of an analysis that provides elements to undertake a “diagnosis” of the history of European civilization which, for Nietzsche, is a movement of décadence.