Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900; Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900 -- Criticism and interpretation; Philosophy
This, in brief, is Nietzsche's doctrine applied to the organic and
inorganic world. In its application to the ideological world, the
reasoning is not changed. In ideas Nietzsche finds this same will to
power. But in them it is the reflection of the principle inherent
in the material world. There is no will inherent in ideas. This
assumption of a reflected will to power in the ideological world is
one of Nietzsche's most important concepts, for it makes all ideas the
outgrowth of ourselves, and therefore dependent on natural laws. It
does away with the conception of supernatural power and with the old
philosophical belief that ideas are superior forces to those of the
organic and inorganic world. Nietzsche once and for all disposes of the
theory that there is anything more powerful than force, and by thus
doing away with this belief, he rationalises all ideas and puts thought
on a tangible and stable basis. In the opening section of the present
book where he applies the will to power to scientific research, the
whole of this new theory is made clear, and I advise the student to
read well this section, for I have been unable to present as clear and
complete an expositional statement of it in Nietzsche's own words as I
would have liked to do, owing to the close and interrelated manner in
which these notes were written.
Volume II of "The Will to Power" is in two books. The first is called
"The Principles of a New Valuation"; the second, "Discipline and
Breeding." The first book is divided into four sections--"The Will
to Power in Science," "The Will to Power in Nature," "The Will to
Power as Exemplified in Society and in the Individual" and "The Will
to Power in Art." The second book has three divisions--"The Order of
Rank," "Dionysus" and "Eternal Recurrence." Of the first section of
Book One, "The Will to Power in Science," I have already spoken. In
this section Nietzsche shows how arbitrary a thing science is, and how
closely related are its conclusions to the instinct of the scientists,
namely: the instinct of the will to power. Scientists, he holds, are
confronted by the necessity of translating all phenomena into terms
compatible with the struggle for persistence and maintenance. A fact
in nature unaccounted for is a danger, an obstacle to the complete
mastery of natural conditions. Consequently the scientist, directed
and influenced by his will to power, invents explanations which will
bring all facts under his jurisdiction and control, and will thereby
increase his feeling of power. As a result, the great facts of life
are looked upon as of secondary importance to their explanations, and
science becomes, not an intelligent search for knowledge, but a system
of interpretations tending to increase the feeling of mastery in the
men directly connected with it. Thus the law of the will to power, as
manifest in the organic and inorganic world, becomes the dominating
instinct in the ideological world as well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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