Thursday, February 18, 2016

Will to Power, Empowerment, Vitalism

Usually, Nietzsche's Will to Power is equivalent to a Will to Overpower, but occasionally, e. g. in the image of a Gift, in Zarathustra, the principle is, rather, a Will to Empower.  Likewise, "seeks to discharge its strength", from #13 of BGE, can be correspondingly intepreted as either 'in order to subjugate', or 'in order to strengthen'.  Now, while Overpowering seems attributable to inorganic and organic phenomena alike, Empowerment seems possible only insofar as some fellow-feeling obtains between two entities.  In other words, a Vitalist principle is derivable from the concept of the Will to Power, though it does not figure prominently in Nietzsche's oeuvre.

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