Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Will to Power, Vicious Cycle, Binaryism

Previously here, the term 'Binaryism' was introduced to replace the more traditional 'Dualism', because the latter is used virtually always to denote what is, more accurately, a pseudo-Dualistic Monism--a system apparently entailing two principles. but one of which is privileged either analytically or normatively, e. g. Mind-Body, Spirit-Matter, etc.  In contrast, systems exhaustively constituted by Repulsion-Attraction, or Expulsion-Appropriation, i. e. Dissonance, are Binary, because their principles are mutually independent, and neither is subordinate to the other.  Thus, the formulation, in #13 of Beyond Good and Evil, that the Will to Power is a drive that seeks "above all" to discharge strength, is the expression of a Monist principle.  Furthermore, it follows, from the formulation, that any acquisition of strength both is preceded by the discharge of strength and is a means to the discharge of strength, resulting in a cycle that is not logically 'vicious', though as constituting what some might call 'drudgery', might be evaluated as morally 'vicious'.  Accordingly, Eternal Recurrence is a property of the Will to Power, i. e. is its fundamental pattern, in which case it is subordinated to the latter in what is a Monist system.  However, the formulation plainly does not suffice to explain any growth process, nor even the possibility of affirming the cycle, which requires a perspective outside of it, both of which Nietzsche advocates elsewhere.  Thus, interpretations of him as advocating a Monist doctrine are problematic, at best.

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