Nietzsche and the Mysticism of Apotheosis
Brett Carollo
Journal for Continental Philosophy of Religion May 16, 2024 DOI: 10.1163/25889613-bja10063 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism |
| Key points | Argues that Nietzsche's later thought is an unfolding expression of his mystical experiences, and that the apparent paradoxes between his cardinal teachings are resolved by understanding them as products of a mystical epistemology. |
Abstract
This paper argues that Friedrich Nietzsche was a mystic and that his post-Gay Science (1882) thought should be understood as an unfolding expression of his mystical experiences. Drawing on Nietzsche’s Nachlass (notes), letters, and published writings, I show that he undoubtedly had at least two major mystical experiences and that these experiences were the source of all the cardinal motifs of his later thought. The apparent tensions or paradoxes between Nietzsche’s cardinal teachings, above all that between the superman and the eternal recurrence, are resolved once they are understood as products of a mystical epistemology derived from an intuitive source of knowledge purportedly beyond the dualities intrinsic to ordinary modes of cognition. This intuitio mystica, which Nietzsche declared to be the real purpose of all philosophy, is coextensive with a type of mysticism I call apotheosis, based on the individual ego’s identification with a unity underlying all reality.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mysticism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The mystical mind: probing the biology of religious experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy | 1993 | Edited collection of essays | |
| Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mysticism and schizophrenia: A phenomenological exploration of the structure of consciousness in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |