What Is Ugliness? Nietzsche Answers

Introduction. Nietzsche digs into the nature of ugliness in his book, The Twilight Of The Idols. For Nietzsche, anything anti-life is ugly. By the same token, beauty is what affirms life. Let's see why ugliness tires us, how philosophers have misunderstood beauty, and much more👇

Nietzsche: "Reckoned physiologically, everything ugly weakens and afflicts man. It recalls decay, danger, impotence; he actually suffers a loss of energy in its presence." Ugliness is lack of proportion, and unpleasant chaos. But why does this steal our energy?

Ugliness saps our energy because life and beauty are principally aligned. Life itself is based on proportion and an orderly harmony of parts - look at animal bodies. This harmony fades when life is decaying - and ugliness is a reminder of this decay.

Nietzsche: "The effect of the ugly can be measured with a dynamometer. Whenever man feels in any way depressed, he senses the proximity of something ugly. His feeling of power, his will to power, his courage, his pride – they decline with the ugly." Our instincts say: flee now!

Nietzsche: "Every token of exhaustion, of heaviness, of age, of weariness, every kind of unfreedom, above all the smell, color and shape of dissolution...calls forth the same reaction, the value judgement ugly." When a man hates ugliness, what is he really hating?

When a man hates ugliness he hates the "decline of his type." Nietzsche writes that there is great "foresight" and "far-seeing vision" in this emotion of hate. Essentially the man correctly senses ugliness as a symbol of the coming decay, weakness, and shrinkage of life itself.

Schopenhauer misunderstood beauty because he believed it's the opposite of lust. In beauty he found the "procreative impulse denied." But Nietzsche notes that in fact "all beauty incites to procreation" in nature. In mates, we look for attractive faces and proportional bodies.

And if beauty and life are essentially tied at the hip, then why won't beauty seek to expand via procreation? We advertise beautiful bodies because they hint at physical health, and we create beautiful art to hint at mental health/creativity.

Bottom line. Beauty and ugliness are not just about aesthetics. The deeper question isn't whether something is pretty or not, but whether something boosts energy, improves mood, and advances life - or not. Whatever makes us love the world, the future, and life - is beautiful.

Enjoyed this Memo? Share it with a friend! And follow me - I'm releasing original Memos every week.