The aesthetics of existence: Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty on the body

The purpose of this paper is to appropriate Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty's criticisms of metaphysical dualism to argue for an embodied account of human existence that is grounded aesthetically rather than morally. I begin with Nietzsche's criticism of metaphysical dualism as it relates to rationality and Christianity and demonstrate the limitation of these frameworks to account for human existence. I then buttress Nietzsche's criticism with Merleau-Ponty's embodied notion of consciousness to argue for a position that incorporates the existence of others in the notion of the self and argue that the rejection of traditional notions of human existence does not imply a denial of meaning and ethics but opens new paths in which these instances may be realized through embodied consciousness.