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Paradox permeates Nietzsche’s thought and his entire being. To understand the contradictoriness of Nietzsche the philosopher, as well as Nietzsche the man, one must acknowledge coincidentia oppositorum, the coincidence of opposites. This concept originated in Heraclitus (much admired by Nietzsche), who believed that all existing things were characterised by pairs of opposing properties. As these strive towards unity, “the path up and down is one and the same”. The battle of the opposites, fuelled by life-long mood fluctuations, became a turbulent undercurrent in Nietzsche’s philosophy. The constant tension and energy of this conflict were a source of inspiration and creativity for him; the strife led to “new and more powerful births”. The Apollonian and the Dionysian became the most famous of his binary concepts, but other Heraclitean ideas are even more provocative: “pain and pleasure are not opposites”, “health and sickness are not essentially different”, “scorners are only hidden admirers”, “truth is a lie according to fixed convention”…
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