Sunday, June 2, 2013

Will to Truth and Self-Overcoming

'Of Self-Overcoming', in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, begins with a classification of the Will to Truth as an expression of the Will to Power, on the grounds, perhaps echoing Kant, that it involves the adaptation of its objects to itself.  However, Self-Overcoming per sedoes not emerge in that analysis, leaving Will to Truth a curious point of departure for that main theme.  Clearly, Nietzsche is not arguing here, as he does earlier in Human, All Too Human, that the exercise of the Will to Truth requires the overcoming of personal prejudices, and, so, involves Self-Overcoming.  Instead, implicit in this examination of the Will to Truth is that it is itself an object of the Will to Truth, and, hence, is itself being adapted by itself.  In other words, Nietzsche, in this chapter, illustrates, though does not explain, that any reflective inquiry, including his own method of psychological self-analysis, is an example of Self-Overcoming.

No comments:

Post a Comment