Concept
Will to power
Overview
The will to power (German: der Wille zur Macht) is a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. The will to power describes what Nietzsche may have believed to be the main driving force in humans. He never systematically defined it, leaving its interpretation open to debate. His use of the term can be summarized as self-determination, the concept of actualizing one's will onto oneself or one's surroundings, and it coincides heavily with egoism.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Will to power is discussed.
(1) The organic functions shown to be but forms of the fundamental will, the will to power,--and buds thereof. (2) The will to power specialises itself as will to nutrition, to property, to _tools,_ to servants (obedience), and to rulers: the body as an example.--The stronger will directs the weaker. There is no other form of causality than that of will to will. It is not to be explained mechanically. (3) Thinking…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Will to Power
states what it is; the book is about it; names the idea; author linked in the graph; opens on it
This explains why we attribute a will to power to others but not to ourselves, except in the complimentary sense that being strong we naturally wish to exercise our strength. Otherwise for ourselves we only want what we want when we want it, not being overscrupulous about the means we take to get it.
John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
The world seen from within, the world defined and designated according to its "intelligible character"--it would simply be "Will to Power," and nothing else.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
names the idea; author linked in the graph
These general considerations apply with special force to the will to power. We all like to effect _something_, but so far as the love of power is concerned we do not care what we effect. Broadly speaking, the more difficult the achievement the more it pleases us.
Bertrand Russell, Education and the good life
states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
But since the will exhibits that _self-assertion_ of one’s own body in innumerable individuals beside each other, it very easily extends in one individual, on account of the egoism peculiar to them all, beyond this assertion to the _denial_ of the same will appearing in another individual. The will of the first breaks through the limits of the assertion of will of another, because the individual either destroys or…
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
author linked in the graph
Philosophers who discussed Will to power
Related ideas
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Gilles Deleuze
- Immanuel Kant
- German philosophy
- Viktor Frankl
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra
- Will to life
- Metaphysics
- Natural selection
- The Gay Science
- Nihilism
- Physics
- Plato
- Politics
- Sigmund Freud
- Friedrich Albert Lange
- Nazism
- Utilitarianism
- Universe
- Martin Heidegger
- Social equality
- Social Darwinism
- Hermann von Helmholtz
- Beyond Good and Evil
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Atheistic existentialism.