Extended Essays 2021

Government by AI

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The Apollonian consciousness is “like veil…hid that Dionysiac world from [man’s] view” a

mere romanticized version of Dionysiac reality. 11 It follows that having Apollo alone, as Plato

advocated, would be nothing but an artificial, glorified shell with a hollowed inner. Therefore,

the platonic rational AI would lack the irrationality to comprehend reality and hence human’s

fundamental need of the chaos, rendering him unsuitable for leadership. It would likely provide

a perfectly organized but hollow and unsatisfying reign, as often depicted in dystopian novels.

Nietzsche’s theory is a response towards Platonism, rejecting the rational-based theodicy and

replacing it with an aesthetic-based theodicy. The central philosophical issue in the book is to

justify evil and problematic aspect of existence, or what he calls “the great question mark over

the value of existence.” 12 The fundamental task of theodicy is to solve the logical inconsistency

generated by the following assertions:

1) There exists in the world, pain and suffering

2) Life is worth affirming and living.

Nietzsche claims that Platonic theodicy fails as it denies preposition 1) by claiming the world

to be rational, moral and good in nature; “all things partake in the form of good” and through

contemplation one understands the form of good and thereby possess good---life full of

meaning and intellectually pleasure.

Nietzsche deemed such theodicy both unachievable and unsatisfactory. It is unachievable

because life fundamentally has “hard , gruesome, evil and problematic aspects ” , likely adopted

from Schopenhauer’s evaluative pessimism . The form of good is a mere illusion, like the

Apollonian dream, created for salvation. The system will decay when the truth-seeking

11 Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, Francis Golffing, and Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. 1990. The Birth Of Tragedy . New York: Anchor Books. 12 Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy .

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