Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Architecture, Will to Power, Art

The Architecture that Nietzsche classifies as an effect of Will to Power, in #11 of the 'Expeditions' section of Twilight of the Idols, is "conscious of no witness around it".  In contrast, the exalted Architecture to which he refers in #218 of Human, All Too Human, "signified something", which entails the existence of a witness to it, and, hence, that it serves as a symbol.  So, perhaps, the two examples illustrate the distinction of Architecture as a purposeful construction, e. g. for a dwelling, from Architecture as an Art, e. g. as an expression of exaltation.  At minimum, the contrast suggests that Will to Power does not suffice as a principle of Art.  Accordingly, the phrase 'Will to Power as Art', chosen by someone else as the title of a chapter in the posthumous Will to Power collection, is premature, despite Heidegger's treatment of it as a fait accompli in Nietzsche oeuvre.

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