Friedrich Nietzsche and imagination as an interpretation of sensations and their implications in Zaratustra's dreams

Abstract

This work develops an investigation about the concept of imagination in aphorisms written sparingly by Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). The philosopher did not write a book or an univocal concept, but many aphorisms offer explanations on the subject. Imagination attributes causality to bodily sensation, and almost instantaneously there is a time reversal (or inverted succession): as if the motive of the nervous excitement was the causality offered by the imaginary, the bodily sensation is dominated by the attributed sense. To interpret bodily sensation as causality the acquired images of recent impressions are provided, so that the individual believes first to experience the circumstances of the near past transformed into present and then the sensation that occurs to him. The imagination inhibits the investigation of the causes that actually excite the nervous system to eliminate the painful states of the body and to habituate the interpretations about the events. For Nietzsche, the intimate happiness or misery of the individual lies in the motives instincts have become accustomed to believe. This research, after the development of the concept of imagination, seeks to verify some uses in the works (eg, Thus spoke Zarathustra, magnanimity) and investigate the relation between imagination and knowledge, privileging beauty in the perception that body has of itself.