philosophical conversations: Heidegger, Nietzsche, will to power

October 31, 2004

Heidegger, Nietzsche, will to power

Volume 3 of Heidegger's gigantic Nietzsche book is concerned with will to power. It interprets Nietzsche as the thinker of the consumation of metaphysics. Heidegger says:

"In the thought of will to power Nietzsche anticipates the metaphysical ground of the consummation of the modern age. In the thought of will to power, metaphysical thinking itself completes itself in advance. Nietzsche, the thinker of the thought of will to power, is the last metaphysican of the West. The age whose consummation unfolds in his thought, the modern age, is a final age. This means an age in which at some point and in some way the historical decision arises as to whether this final age is the conclusion of Western history, or the counterpart to another beginning. To go to the length of Nietzsche's pathway of thought to the will to power means to catch sight of this historical decision."

I have introduced Heidegger because he argues that will to power is Nietzsche's key idea, even if the book Will To Power, is not a published work by Nietzsche. It is a number of writings over different years assembled by others.

Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at October 31, 2004 11:20 AM | TrackBack

Comments

Is the Overman possible (immaginable?) without the Will to Power? Is there a satisfactory solution to eternal reccurence even thinkingable without the Will to Power?

Also, with the WtP, Nietzsche has been uncharacteristically concrete and we see a lot less poetry and metaphors as we do with, shall we say, eternal reccurence. Maybe I'm reading it wrong.

Posted by: Gabriel Mihalache on October 31, 2004 06:08 PM

Gabriel,

My understanding is that in a world of becoming Overman, will to power and eternal recurrence go together.

Overman involves the negation what is (ie., the Platonic-Christian interpretation of the world)a re-valuation of values, and the enhancement of life in a nihilistic world. That involves a wil to power in the sense of an overpowering (overcoming) of impediments and obstacles and preservation.

This is an expression of power as a commanding of valuation.

Eternal recurrence of the same implies a circling, recurring, or circuit in a world of becoming.In the world of becoming the same that recurs has only relative stability and is therefore mostly unstable.

Recurrence signifies a continual bringing back to stability a making permanent of the unstable.

So we come back to will to power.

Posted by: Gary Sauer-Thompson on November 5, 2004 09:59 AM