PHI 1104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Promise This
24 Sep 2015
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
It is a psychological insight: our fundamental drive is for power as realized in independence and dominance. This will is stronger than the will to survive (ex. Martyrs willing to die for a cause they associate themselves with). Stronger than the will of sex (monks renouncing sex for a greater cause). While the will of power can be manifested through violence and physical dominance, Nietzsche is more interested in the sublimated will to power where people turn their will to power inward and pursue self-mastery instead of mastery over others. (ex indian mystic vs barbarian) On a deeper level, the will of power explains the fundamental, changing aspect of reality. According to nietzsche, everything is in a flux and there is no such thing as a fixed being. Matter is always moving and changing, and so are ideas, knowledge, truth, and everything else. The will to power is the fundamental engine of this change.
