Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The Ephemerality of Power

Nietzsche's intensive examination of Will in #19 of Beyond Good and Evil is in contrast with a merely passing reference to Power, "an increase in the sensation of which" "accompanies all success".  However, it is unclear if Power can survive the same degree of scrutiny as one which dissolves the apparent unity of Will.  For, all success is fleeting, so, if the feeling of Power is a function of success, than it, too, is ephemeral.  Furthermore, he would be hard pressed to present an example in which the successful execution of a command is completely independent of circumstantial factors, e. g. the successful execution of a command to raise one's arm presupposes that certain ambient gravitational conditions obtain.  Likewise in cases of institutional 'Power', the continuation of which is always contingent.  So, if he were less eager in this passage to foist a Command-Obey structure on the phenomena under examination, he might have come to the conclusion that the fundamental component of his system, 'Power' is no more unitary than is 'Will'.

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