Sunday, June 9, 2013

Will and Power

In 'Of Self-Overcoming', in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche proposes that the 'Will to Existence' is a meaningless formulation, since it entails that the Will already exists, in which case 'to Existence' is uninformative.  In the process, he takes for granted that 'Will to Power' is not similarly trivial, which implies a clear distinction between Will and Power.  Now, in #19 of Beyond Good and Evil, he seems to suggest that they are distinguished as command and execution.  However, he does not seem to consider that even a minimal stirring of that 'Will', whether muscular or ideational, itself constitutes an overcoming of its preconditions, and, so, is already an exercise of Power, independently of whatever further ensues.  Thus, what may be superfluous in the 'Will to Power', is not Power, but, as it might also be in the 'Will to Existence', is the 'Will'.

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