Welcome to the Machina: Science as a Form of Life in Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy

In this chapter, I argue that Nietzsche, in The Birth of Tragedy, predicates the possibility for a life-affirming future on the revitalization of tragic culture. The reinvigoration of tragic culture, in turn, depends on the overcoming of science. I contend Nietzsche designates science as harmful to life because it converts human beings into the means by which life itself is subverted. In the course of the chapter, I provide an overview of Nietzsche’s account of the ascendency of science. On this level, my analysis demonstrates how science gives birth to a perverse version of the human self, a self best described as a machine. To support my interpretation, I chart how The Birth of Tragedy employs the notion of a deus ex machina as a central framing device which allows for science to take hold of the human individual.