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 though the book Will To Power is a number of writings over a period of time assembled by others, rather than a work published by Nietzsche.

In Chapter 3 Heidegger quickly cuts to the core of book 3 of Will to Power, entitled 'Principles of a New Valuation':


"Will to power is the 'principle of a new valuation", and vica versa: the principle of the new valuation to be gounded is will to power. What does "valuation" mean? What does the word value mean?....The word "value" is esentialfor Nietzsche....Value for Nietzsche means a condition of life, a condition of life's being "alive". In Nietzsche's thinking life is usually the term for what is and for beings as whole insorar as they are...As a condition of life, value must therefore be thought as that which supports, furthers and awakens the enhancement of life."

What is pushed into the background by Klossowski's and Deleuze's interpretatin fo Nietzsche is made central in Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche's Will to Power text.

Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at October 31, 2004 11:32 AM | TrackBack
Comments
Post a comment