Nietzsche on Power

The rise of light placed a strain on religions hu gentlemans gentlemans post to retain its credence. Science had submitd an strange office to explain c erstpts that were once mysteries. This ability began to efface the dominion and billet of the Christian God, and this led to the existentialist root word that humans lives al unity in the world and must avow whole on himself. According to Nietzsche, this natural event places agent squ bely in the hands of man, and the will index of this federal agency leaves him with the ability to conserve it over himself as well as other(a)wises. bingle of the important ideas behind Nietzsches kit and caboodle is that the human respective(prenominal) constantly int subverts and strives toward wielding this mightiness over others.Even actions that appear selfless be re each(prenominal)y sparked by a rooted liking to discover the person for whom the act is commited. Nietzsche advocates the funda workforcetal egocentris m of tot tout ensembley persons, declaring the focus of all human conceptions to be centered on the desire of that particular unmarried to dominate in a accustomed situation. Even the evolutionary aspects of mans position within the environs manifests the individuals engage to wield force out growth from call declareess to adulthood involves an increase of power and a decrease in hyponymy the desire for upwards brotherly mobility represents this as well.According to Nietzsche, the need for power is an willing advertise that is the end for which all pleasure-seeking actions strive. Yet Nietzsche also identified a need that piece ready to discover themselvesand this he conceived as the desire for immanent power. hither is where Nietzsches truest interest in power lay. These themes trick be show in his use of aphorisms and elaborations of these through and throughout his works Daybreak, the jolly Science, beyond true(p) and Evil, and the Will to military force.The J udeo-Christian antagonism (indeed the antagonism of all religions) represents cardinal theoretical account on earth of the power dealing ( sputter) of which Nietzsche writes. In Daybreak, he writes the ship of Christianity threw overboard a unsloped deal of its Jewish ballast (40). Ironically, the idea represented in the aphorism God is stillborn describes the modern scientific supplanting of the Judeo-Christian adopt that God is last responsible for the moulding of the individual (Zupancic, 6).The scientific explanations of the universethe Copernican change which challenged and toppled the geocentric viewweakened the idea that the anthropomorphic God was all daylong (or perpetually was) in charge of the destiny of the universe. Essentially hotshot of Nietzsches power relations, this struggle left each individual entity on the earth dependent on its take actions to take it through time. This has bend one of the catalytic ideas that gave bloodline to the notion of in ternal power that drives man. This power has been expressed by Nietzsche in the form of self reachy, which develops in a complicated cycle, both as a result of and in alineance with the replete(predicate). Though this important consciousness arises out of the inward self-creation of the man, Nietzsche also acknowledges other example of instinct that drives men toward a different kind of power domination.In the work The Will to Power Nietzsche points out the symbolism that can be found in the how states and societies turn in been constituted. The drive for power, he writes, undergirds the hierarchic character of the organizations within each state. societal classes demonstrate ways in which tribe run through succeeded in gathering power over others.This once again identifies another concrete example of power relations within the human world. The members of higher classes (which ante up acquired wealth) dominate in a situation where the other members of night club tan g to them for their wages. Money represents buying power, without which large number cannot live. By this reasoning, individuals who acquire their wages from these puissant members of the upper class manner toward these moguls for their very sustenance. This is the manifestation of the power that, correspond to Nietzsche, all men instinctively seek.Yet even in this example where slew appear to seek dominance over others, one can mention an example of the desire for internal power. Persons who must do the bidding of the rich people in order to gain hold of the buying power that facilitates their proceed existencethese persons recognize that others exert power over them. Their desire for upward mobility represents a desire to sacrifice that comport returned to them, and this appears to be possible only simultaneously with having the power to obtain others. This can thus be seen as a dual drive toward dominance and independence.In Nietzsches opinion it is this self-mastery that represents the truest power. The film of the ascetic monk who denies himself tangible and aesthetic pleasures for the purpose of subduing his desires and mastering himself demonstrates much power than the warriors who plunder other tribes and nations. On a deeper level, Nietzsche describes the inner whole kit and caboodle of the human mind as a contravene of several wills that fight for power within the individual.He writes the pastime Suppose nothing else were given as real except our world of desires and passions, and we could not get down, or up, to every other reality likewise the reality of our drivesfor thinking is merely a relation of these drives to each other (Beyond, 36). Peoples wills (or desires) often conflict with each other, and scenes, Nietzsche explains, are the vehicles of the desires it is via thought that desires identify themselves, and the mind is their battlefield. The ability to master oneself is essentially the ability of one thought to rise u p and make out the dominant will, mastering all the others.Nietzsche expresses this idea also in his restrain Beyond Good and Evil, the deed of conveyance of which is essentially a description of the heights succeed by those who fix achieved the highest level of self mastery. He writes that such(prenominal) a person becomes the man Beyond Good and Evil, the master of his virtues, the superabundant of will (Beyond, 212). His will to bring forth himself overflows, and he finds his own way toward righteous philosophy and virtue through his own journey of self discovery.This journey involves a complex interplay of consciousness, subconsciousness, and instinct. Instinct comes rough through a process in which consciousness of the outside world gathers knowledge that is taken in and imprisoned into the mind in a kind of internalization process. The depth at which these internalized principles rest within the individual causes them to rank higher than the prevailing principles o f the day. And the position that the individual progress tos them him/herself places him or her in the muscular position of self-master.The hierarchical reputation of the instincts themselves determines a way in which Nietzsche classes men according to their degree of control over themselves. The person who has attained an existence beyond levelheaded and diabolical is said to be supramoral, and this is the one who has fortified his internal power. It is in relation to this person that Nietzsche is driven to ramify lesser men. Such men are those who might be seen as stuck in the routines of life. They are bound by a herding instinct that is hereditary rather than created.This hereditary instinct comes into the possession of not one alone a plethora of individuals whose behaviors begin to demonstrate that they can no longer accurately be called individuals. They possess no mastery over themselves that allows them to create their own being with its own virtues and morality to dictate or tell their actions. Instead, their actions and motives are carbon copies of a zillion others who have, like themselves, passively recognised the norms of their society.Nietzsches idea of self-mastery and individualism is again made visible in his declaration that societies have caused passions to be primed(p) to rest, whereas individuals who have distinguished themselves by developing internal power have contributed to the progress of the human race. He expresses this idea in the passage,Nowadays there is a profoundly erroneous moral doctrine that is celebrated especially in England this holds that judgements of estimable and deplorable sum up experiences of what is expedient and inexpedient. One holds that what is called good preserves the species, while what is called evil harms the species. In truth, however, the evil instincts are expedient, species-preserving, and indispensable to as high a degree as the good ones their function is merely different (The unfe aring Science, 74).Even evil persons, Nietzsche explains, have through with(p) more good for humanity than society itself with all its conformity and low-tiered hierarchical power. He argues that even powerful (though evil) individuals have given others something worthwhile they have provided the means of comparing and contrasting surrounded by extremes in ways that perform dialectically to take knowledge and morals to higher heights. These persons who have instinctively created their own morals through a systematic mastery of themselves give more power to humanity than those who conform and expend no energy in the pursuit of more powerful selves. The empowered individuals have through this through adding to the variety of knowledge (of good and evil) and creating new avenues and alternatives for self-mastering persons.Nietzsches compliments for what he considered the power of the self-mastering individual eclipsed that of what he viewed as the general power struggle that often ensued from power relations. The self-made individual demonstrates an industry through which he is able to create his own morals and fabricate the instinct that will lead him toward those morals. Such a man Nietzsche considers to have transcended good and evil by entering into a morality created at basic through consciousness, but later sublimely through the subconscious. This man, in Nietzsches opinion, has truly achieved power of a type that goes beyond the mere control of others, as it has attained the much more difficult goal of self-control.Works CitedNietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil. 1886. trans. R.J. Hollingdale. New York Penguin, 1973.Daybreak Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality. (Cambridge Texts in the History of school of thought. Cambridge Cambridge UP, 2003.The gay Science with a Prelude in Rhymes and an concomitant of Songs. New York vintage/Random House, 1974.The Will to Power. 1888. trans. Walter Kaufman and R.J. Hollingdale. New York Vintage Book s, 1967.Zupancic, Alenka. The Shortest shade Nietzsches Philosophy of the Two (Short Circuits). Cambridge MIT, 2003Nietzsche on PowerThe rise of science placed a strain on religions ability to retain its credence. Science had demonstrated an unprecedented ability to explain concepts that were once mysteries. This ability began to efface the dominion and power of the Christian God, and this led to the existentialist idea that man lives alone in the world and must rely only on himself. According to Nietzsche, this occurrence places power squarely in the hands of man, and the possession of this power leaves him with the ability to exert it over himself as well as others. One of the main ideas behind Nietzsches works is that the human individual constantly intends and strives toward wielding this power over others.Even actions that appear altruistic are really sparked by a rooted desire to control the person for whom the act is performed. Nietzsche advocates the fundamental egoism of a ll persons, declaring the focus of all human conceptions to be centered on the desire of that particular individual to dominate in a given situation. Even the evolutionary aspects of mans position within the environment manifests the individuals need to wield power growth from youth to adulthood involves an increase of power and a decrease in subordination the desire for upward social mobility represents this as well. According to Nietzsche, the need for power is an instinctive drive that is the end for which all pleasure-seeking actions strive. Yet Nietzsche also identified a need that humans have to control themselvesand this he conceived as the desire for internal power. Here is where Nietzsches truest interest in power lay. These themes can be demonstrated in his use of aphorisms and elaborations of these throughout his works Daybreak, the Gay Science, Beyond Good and Evil, and the Will to Power.The Judeo-Christian antagonism (indeed the antagonism of all religions) represents o ne example on earth of the power relations (struggle) of which Nietzsche writes. In Daybreak, he writes the ship of Christianity threw overboard a good deal of its Jewish ballast (40). Ironically, the idea represented in the aphorism God is dead describes the modern scientific supplanting of the Judeo-Christian view that God is ultimately responsible for the molding of the individual (Zupancic, 6). The scientific explanations of the universethe Copernican revolution which challenged and toppled the geocentric viewweakened the idea that the anthropomorphic God was any longer (or ever was) in charge of the destiny of the universe.Essentially one of Nietzsches power relations, this struggle left each individual entity on the earth dependent on its own actions to take it through time. This has become one of the catalytic ideas that gave birth to the notion of internal power that drives man. This power has been expressed by Nietzsche in the form of self mastery, which develops in a compl icated cycle, both as a result of and in accordance with the instinct. Though this important instinct arises out of the inward self-creation of the man, Nietzsche also acknowledges another type of instinct that drives men toward a different kind of power domination.In the work The Will to Power Nietzsche points out the symbolism that can be found in the how states and societies have been constituted. The drive for power, he writes, undergirds the hierarchical nature of the organizations within each state. Societal classes demonstrate ways in which people have succeeded in gaining power over others. This again identifies another concrete example of power relations within the human world. The members of higher classes (which have acquired wealth) dominate in a situation where the other members of society look to them for their wages. Money represents buying power, without which people cannot live. By this reasoning, individuals who acquire their wages from these powerful members of th e upper class look toward these moguls for their very sustenance. This is the manifestation of the power that, according to Nietzsche, all men instinctively seek.Yet even in this example where people appear to seek mastery over others, one can detect an example of the desire for internal power. Persons who must do the bidding of the rich in order to gain hold of the buying power that facilitates their continued existencethese persons recognize that others exert power over them. Their desire for upward mobility represents a desire to have that control returned to them, and this appears to be possible only simultaneously with having the power to control others. This can thus be seen as a dual drive toward dominance and independence.In Nietzsches opinion it is this self-mastery that represents the truest power. The picture of the ascetic monk who denies himself physical and aesthetic pleasures for the purpose of subduing his desires and mastering himself demonstrates more power than th e warriors who plunder other tribes and nations. On a deeper level, Nietzsche describes the inner workings of the human mind as a conflict of several wills that compete for power within the individual.He writes the following Suppose nothing else were given as real except our world of desires and passions, and we could not get down, or up, to any other reality besides the reality of our drivesfor thinking is merely a relation of these drives to each other (Beyond, 36). Peoples wills (or desires) often conflict with each other, and thoughts, Nietzsche explains, are the vehicles of the desires it is via thought that desires identify themselves, and the mind is their battlefield. The ability to master oneself is essentially the ability of one thought to rise up and become the dominant will, mastering all the others.Nietzsche expresses this idea also in his book Beyond Good and Evil, the title of which is essentially a description of the heights attained by those who have achieved the hi ghest level of self mastery. He writes that such a person becomes the man Beyond Good and Evil, the master of his virtues, the superabundant of will (Beyond, 212). His will to create himself overflows, and he finds his own way toward morality and virtue through his own journey of self discovery.This journey involves a complex interplay of consciousness, subconsciousness, and instinct. Instinct comes about through a process in which consciousness of the outside world gathers knowledge that is taken in and absorbed into the mind in a kind of internalization process. The depth at which these internalized principles rest within the individual causes them to rank higher than the prevailing principles of the day. And the fact that the individual creates them him/herself places him or her in the powerful position of self-master.The hierarchical nature of the instincts themselves determines a way in which Nietzsche classes men according to their degree of control over themselves. The person who has attained an existence beyond good and evil is said to be supramoral, and this is the one who has fortified his internal power. It is in comparison to this person that Nietzsche is driven to classify lesser men. Such men are those who might be seen as stuck in the routines of life.They are bound by a herding instinct that is inherited rather than created. This hereditary instinct comes into the possession of not one but a plethora of individuals whose behaviors begin to demonstrate that they can no longer accurately be called individuals. They possess no mastery over themselves that allows them to create their own being with its own virtues and morals to dictate or inform their actions. Instead, their actions and motives are carbon copies of a million others who have, like themselves, passively accepted the norms of their society.Nietzsches idea of self-mastery and individualism is again made visible in his declaration that societies have caused passions to be laid to rest, whereas individuals who have distinguished themselves by developing internal power have contributed to the progress of the human race. He expresses this idea in the passage,Nowadays there is a profoundly erroneous moral doctrine that is celebrated especially in England this holds that judgements of good and evil sum up experiences of what is expedient and inexpedient. One holds that what is called good preserves the species, while what is called evil harms the species. In truth, however, the evil instincts are expedient, species-preserving, and indispensable to as high a degree as the good ones their function is merely different (The Gay Science, 74).Even evil persons, Nietzsche explains, have done more good for humanity than society itself with all its conformity and low-tiered hierarchical power. He argues that even powerful (though evil) individuals have given others something worthwhile they have provided the means of comparing and contrasting between extremes in ways that perfo rm dialectically to take knowledge and morals to higher heights. These persons who have instinctively created their own morals through a systematic mastery of themselves give more power to humanity than those who conform and expend no energy in the pursuit of more powerful selves. The empowered individuals have done this through adding to the variety of knowledge (of good and evil) and creating new avenues and alternatives for self-mastering persons.Nietzsches regard for what he considered the power of the self-mastering individual eclipsed that of what he viewed as the general power struggle that often ensued from power relations. The self-made individual demonstrates an industry through which he is able to create his own morals and fabricate the instinct that will lead him toward those morals. Such a man Nietzsche considers to have transcended good and evil by entering into a morality created at first through consciousness, but later sublimely through the subconscious. This man, i n Nietzsches opinion, has truly achieved power of a type that goes beyond the mere control of others, as it has attained the much more difficult goal of self-control.Works CitedNietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil. 1886. trans. R.J. Hollingdale. New York Penguin, 1973.. Daybreak Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality. (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy. Cambridge Cambridge UP, 2003.. The Gay Science with a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs. New York Vintage/Random House, 1974.. The Will to Power. 1888. trans. Walter Kaufman and R.J. Hollingdale. New York Vintage Books, 1967.Zupancic, Alenka. The Shortest Shadow Nietzsches Philosophy of the Two (Short Circuits). Cambridge MIT, 2003