Two Brains: Scientific Balance and Visionary Insight in Friedrich Nietzsche and Eberhard Arnold

Abstract

Friedrich Nietzsche and Eberhard Arnold, founder of the Bruderhof communities, both struggled with a tension between scientific, balanced analysis and a visionary call to a fuller experience of life. Nietzsche moved from a balance of Apollonian and Dionysian factors in life, to a unitary vision of the will to power and individual development. Arnold began with a balance of creation and re-creation, but shifted to a focus on the will to community. Arnold's path here highlights the need to respond to Nietzsche according to Nietzsche's own style, to address his concerns. But it also shows that the need to balance scientific and visionary modes of knowing may also require the deep community that Arnold proposes.