“Water is enough.” Nietzsche, intoxication and amor fati

Abstract If we follow the motif of intoxication in philosophical reflection, we cannot overlook its role in the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche. Here, attention is usually focused on the Dionysian motif, leaving aside both the concrete, bodily function of intoxication and its broader meaning with its implications for human self-understanding and understanding of the world. Therefore, this study is concerned with the question of how the motifs of intoxication and Nietzsche’s philosophy relate to each other. If for Nietzsche the intensification of philosophical life is guided by the idea of amor fati , then the question can be formulated more precisely as follows: How do the motifs of intoxication and amor fati relate to each other? This seemingly marginal question gains urgency when we consider the paradox that Nietzsche, on the one hand, advocates the Dionysian ideal, which carries within it the meaning of intoxication, and, on the other hand, seems to stand in sharp opposition to intoxication, as evident in his Ecce Homo and its assertion that “Water is enough.” The answer to this paradox lies in the development of the motif of “bodily virtue,” which disposes a person for an affirmative attitude towards the world and prevents the threat of “odium fati.”