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Edward Frenkel on Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy

Photo by James Lee / Unsplash
"Nietzsche wrote this book called The Birth of Tragedy and he presented this theory . . . of two sides of a human. One that comes from Apollo, and that's the left brain so to speak: everything that has to do with logic, and reason, and analyzing, dissecting, conceptualizing. And the other side which comes from Dionysius, and that's responsible for intuition, imagination, love. Dionysius was also the god of wine, so it's also that side of humans that makes us sing and engage in revelrie and drink wine and spend time with friends and love and enjoy. So, Nietzsche had this point of view that those were two complementary sides of every human, as well as society." Edward Frenkel (Lex Fridman, #370), 1:19:45.

Frenkel says this idea is what he finds most important today. It makes him "excited, and enthusiastic, and passionate." I feel like I'm in good company because he's celebrating the Hemisphere Hypothesis, though nowhere in the (nearly) four-hour discussion does he mention McGilchrist or his work.

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