The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
640.
Man imagines that he was present at the generation of the organic world: what was there to be observed, with the eyes and the touch, in regard to these processes? How much of it can be put into round numbers? What rules are noticeable in the movements? Thus, man would fain arrange all phenomena as if they were _for the eye and for the touch,_ as if they were forms of motion: he will discover _formules_ wherewith to _simplify_ the unwieldy mass of these experiences. _The reduction of all phenomena_ to the level of men with senses and with mathematics. It is a matter of making _an inventory of human experiences:_ granting that man, or rather the _human eye and the ability to form concepts,_ have been the eternal witnesses of all things. A plurality of forces bound by a common nutritive process we call "Life." To this nutritive process all so-called feeling, thinking, and imagining belong as means--that is to say, (1) in the form of opposing other forces; (2) in the form of an adjustment of other forces according to mould and rhythm; (3) the form of a valuation relative to assimilation and excretion. The bond between the inorganic and the organic world must lie in the repelling power exercised by every atom of energy. "Life" might be defined as a lasting form of _force-establishing processes,_ in which the various contending forces, on their part, grow unequally. To what extent does counter-strife exist even in obedience? Individual power is by no means surrendered through it. In the same way, there exists in the act of commanding, an acknowledgment of the fact that the absolute power of the adversary has not been overcome, absorbed, or dissipated. "Obedience," and "command," are forms of the game of war.
The Will to Power _interprets_ (an organ in the process of formation has to be interpreted): it defines, it determines gradations, differences of power. Mere differences of power could not be aware of each other as such: something must be there which _will_ grow, and which interprets all other things that would do the same, according to the value of the latter. In sooth, all interpretation is but a means in itself to become master of something. (Continual _interpretation_ is the first principle of the organic process.) Greater complexity, sharp differentiation, the contiguity of the developed organs and functions, with the disappearance of intermediate members--if _that_ is _perfection,_ then there is a Will to Power apparent in the organic process by means of whose _dominating, shaping,_ and _commanding_ forces it is continually increasing the sphere of its power, and persistently simplifying things within that sphere, it _grows_ imperatively. "Spirit" is only a means and an instrument in the service of higher life, in the service of the elevation of life. "_Heredity,_" as something quite incomprehensible, cannot be used as an explanation, but only as a designation for the identification of a problem. And the same holds good of "_adaptability._" As a matter of fact, the account of morphology, even supposing it were perfect, _explains_ nothing, it merely describes an enormous fact. _How_ a given organ gets to be used for any particular purpose is not explained. There is just as little explained in regard to these things by the assumption of _causæ finales_ as by the assumption of _causæ efficientes._ The concept "causa" is only a means of expression, no _more_; a means of designating a thing.
They are analogies; for instance, our _memory_ may suggest another kind of memory which makes itself felt in heredity, development, and forms. Our _inventive_ and experimentative powers suggest another kind of inventiveness in the application of instruments to new ends, etc. That which we call our "_consciousness_" is quite guiltless of any of the essential processes of our preservation and growth; and no human brain could be so subtle as to construct anything more than a machine--to which every organic process is infinitely superior.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.