The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
647.
_Against Darwinism._--The use of an organ does _not_ explain its origin, on the contrary! During the greater part of the time occupied in the formation of a certain quality, this quality does not help to preserve the individual; it is of no use to him, and particularly not in his struggle with external circumstances and foes. What is ultimately "useful"? It is necessary to ask, "Useful for what"? For instance, that which promotes the _lasting powers_ of the individual might be unfavourable to his strength or his beauty; that which preserves him might at the same time fix him and keep him stable throughout development. On the other hand, a _deficiency,_ a state of _degeneration,_ may be of the greatest possible use, inasmuch as it acts as a stimulus to other organs. In the same way, a _state of need_ may be a condition of existence, inasmuch as it reduces an individual to that modicum of means which, though it _keeps him together,_ does not allow him to squander his strength.--The individual himself is the struggle of parts (for nourishment, space, etc.): his development involves the _triumph,_ the _predominance,_ of isolated parts; the _wasting away,_ or the "development into organs," of other parts. The influence of "environment" is nonsensically _overrated_ in Darwin, the essential factor in the process of life is precisely the tremendous inner power to shape and to create forms, which merely _uses, exploits_ "environment."
The new forms built up by this inner power are not produced with a view to any end; but, in the struggle between the parts, a new form does not exist long _without_ becoming related to some kind of semi-utility, and, according to its use, develops itself ever more and more perfectly. "Utility" in respect of the acceleration of the speed of evolution, is a different kind of "utility" from that which is understood to mean the greatest possible stability and staying power of the evolved creature. "Useful" in the sense of Darwinian biology means: that which favours a thing in its struggle with others. But in my opinion the _feeling of being surcharged,_ the feeling accompanying an _increase in strength,_ quite apart from the utility of the struggle, is the actual _progress_: from these feelings the will to war is first derived. Physiologists should bethink themselves before putting down the instinct of self-preservation as the cardinal instinct of an organic being. A living thing seeks above all to _discharge_ its strength: "_self-preservation" _ is only one of the results thereof.--Let us beware of _superfluous_ teleological principles!--one of which is the whole concept of "self-preservation."[4] The most-fundamental--and most primeval activity of a protoplasm cannot be ascribed to a will to self-preservation, for it absorbs an amount of material which is absurdly out of proportion with the needs of its preservation: and what is more, it does _not_ "preserve itself" in the process, but actually falls to _pieces...._ The instinct which rules here, must account for this total absence in the organism of a desire to preserve itself: hunger is already an interpretation based upon the observation of a more or less complex organism (hunger is a specialised and later form of the instinct; it is an expression of the system of divided labour, in the service of a higher instinct which rules the whole).
It is just as impossible to regard _hunger_ as the _primum mobile,_ as it is to take self-preservation to be so. Hunger, considered as the result of insufficient nourishment, means hunger as the result of a will to power _which can no longer dominate_ It is not a question of replacing a loss, it is only later on, as the result of the division of labour, when the Will to Power has discovered other and quite different ways of gratifying itself, that the appropriating lust of the organism is _reduced_ to hunger--to the need of replacing what has been lost. We can but laugh at the false "_Altruism_" of biologists: propagation among the amœbæ appears as a process of jetsam, as an advantage to them. It is an excretion of useless matter. The division of a protoplasm into two takes place when its power is no longer sufficient to subjugate the matter it has appropriated: procreation is the result of impotence. In the cases in which the males seek the females and become one with them, procreation is the result of hunger.
Ideas discussed in this chapter
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.