Abstract

This chapter interprets Nietzsche’s account of the value of tragedy as a response to Socrates’ challenge in Book 10 of the _Republic_: ‘to prove that there’s more to it than mere pleasure—that it is also an agent of cultural health and ‘metaphysical consolation’. According to the author, Nietzsche is the first major figure in the tradition to respond to Socrates by rejecting the terms on which his challenge is set. Tragedy has value, according to Nietzsche, precisely because it does not benefit us in the way Socrates’ challenge demands.