ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Friedrich Nietzsche's views on suffering in order to assess how they can shed light upon his aestheticism. Nihilism remains a concern for those scrutinizing the boundaries between the aesthetic and the nonaesthetic under the optic of truth. The chapter concerns the coherence of Nietzsche's aestheticism when considered in relation to life. It shows that the inclusivity of aestheticism with regard to all aspects of phenomenal experience poses a challenge for the aestheticist claim, by virtue of its seemingly morally misguided equation of beauty with pain and suffering. The chapter argues that accepting the non-selectivity of phenomenal experience when considered in relation to the aestheticist claim is the key to an appreciation of the coherence of aestheticism. The deep connection that exists in Nietzsche between the ontology of the will to power and aestheticism, paves the way for wider discussion of such a connection hints at Nietzsche's allowing for a full ontological identity between art and life.
