Nietzsche: On the "Will to Power"

This paper asks whether a Nietzschean defense of the Christian valuation of human life is tenable. Nietzsche has long been noted for his anti-Christian stance in his writings. Despite his candid revulsion and antipathy towards Christianity, however, there are scholars who argue that Nietzsche is a “Christian,” because we can actually find a good number of Nietzschean ideas that coincide with the teachings of the Christian faith. Foremost of these ideas is Nietzsche’s insistence that life must be affirmed and valued (...) at all times — a position that perfectly resonates with the Christian doctrine on the value of human life. For this reason, in this paper, I aim to examine whether a Nietzschean defense of the Christian valuation of human life is tenable, given that Nietzsche’s writings abound with direct and scathing attacks against Christianity. (shrink)

Conceived in the last days of August 1888 - the last summer of his lucid life – in Sils Maria (Switzerland), "Magnum in parvo: A philosophy in compendium" is a work that Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) projected as a synthesis of his ill-fated capital project "The will to power" and in which the key themes of his thought are addressed. Nevertheless, a sudden change of opinion determined that this work saw the light not in the planned unitary form, but dissolved and (...) mixed with other materials in two different books: "Twilight of the Idols" (1889) and "The Antichrist" (1894) (a). Professor Joaquín Riera has scientifically and painstakingly reconstructed, translated to Spanish, introduced and carefully annotated this Nietzsche’s book project using the posthumous nietzschean fragments or Nachgelassene Fragmente (b) and the original Nietzschean manuscripts of the published books (c) critically edited by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari. In this regard, the title chosen for the reconstruction of the work is the last one Nietzsche wrote down in his postumous fragment 19 [3] of September 1888 (d) and the names of the chapters that allow the reconstruction of its content were also wrote down by the German philosopher in the Nachgelassene Fragmente 19 [4] of the same date (e). Specifically, the content of the lost book, which was in fact written in a manuscript form by Nietzsche (f), has been recovered from the indications Nietzsche left in the head of the chapters or sections of the orignal manuscripts of "Twilight of the Idols" (1889) and "The Antichrist" (1894) (g) . In short, this edition of “Magnun in parvo” has recovered a noteworthy work of Nietzsche as he designed it, allowing the Nietzschean schoolars to acces to a piece of a remarkable philosophical and literary value, more rounded, overall, than what its two offspring would become. -/- NOTES: -/- (a) Mazzino Montinari: Nietzsche lesen. De-Gruyter-Studienbuch, 1982, pages 113-116. -/- (b) Friedrich Nietzsche Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, VIII 3. Nachgelassene Fragmente Anfang 1888 bis Anfang Januar 1889. De Gruyter, Berlin/New York, 1972. / Friedrich Nietzsche: Sämtliche Werke. Kritische Studienausgabe, Band 13, Nachgelassene Fragmente 1887-1889. Dtv / De Gruyter, 1988, Berlin/NewYork, pages: 542-543 -/- (c) Friedrich Nietzsche Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, VI 3. Der Fall Wagner. Götzen-Dämmerung. / Nachgelassene Schriften (August 1888-Anfang Januar 1889): Der Antichrist. Ecce homo. Dionysos-Dithyramben. / Nietzsche contra Wagner, De Gruyter , Berlin,1969. / Friedrich Nietzsche Sämtliche Werke. Kritische Studienausgabe, Band 6, Der Fall Wagner /Götzen-Dämmerung / Der Antichrist / Ecce homo /Dionysos-Dithyramben / Nietzsche contra Wagner. Dtv / De Gruyter, 1988, Berlin/NewYork: pages 55-160 [GD] / pages 165-254 [AC] -/- (d) “Magnum in parvo: Eine Philosophie im Auszug”. Friedrich Nietzsche Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, VIII 3. Nachgelassene Fragmente Anfang 1888 bis Anfang Januar 1889. De Gruyter, Berlin et New York, 1972 and Mazzino Montinari: Nietzsche lesen. De-Gruyter-Studienbuch, 1982. Digitale Faksimile-Gesamtausgabe (DFGA), Nachgelassene Fragmente, Mp-XVI-4, Mp-XVI-4,29 (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv) -/- (e) “1. Wir Hyperboreer; 2.Das Problem des Sokrates; 3.Die Vernunft in der Philosophie. 4. Wie die wahre Welt endlich zur Fabel; 5. Moral als Widernatur; 6. Die vier großen Irrthümer; 7. Für uns—wider uns; 8. Begriff einer Décadence-Religion; 9. Buddhismus und Christenthum; 10. Aus meiner Aesthetik; 11. Unter Künstlern und Schriftstellern; 12. Sprüche und Pfeile”. Friedrich Nietzsche Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, VIII 3. Nachgelassene Fragmente Anfang 1888 bis Anfang Januar 1889. De Gruyter, Berlin et New York, 1972 / / Friedrich Nietzsche: Sämtliche Werke. Kritische Studienausgabe, Band 13, Nachgelassene Fragmente 1887-1889. Dtv / De Gruyter, 1988, Berlin/NewYork, pages: 542-543 / Mazzino Montinari: Nietzsche lesen. De-Gruyter-Studienbuch, 1982, pages: 113-116 -/- (f) Mazzino Montinari, ‘Nietzsche Lesen: Die Götzen-Dämmerung’, Nietzsche-Studien 13 (1984), pages: 69–79. -/- (g) Friedrich Nietzsche Sämtliche Werke. Kritische Studienausgabe, band 14, Kommentar zu den Bänden 1-13., Walter de Gruyter, Berlín/Nueva York/Múnich, 1988 and Mazzino Montinari: Nietzsche lesen. De-Gruyter-Studienbuch, pages: 397-398 and 422 . (shrink)

Provocative and disconcerting, The False Past confronts what many generations hold near and dear about their memorials. What if everything we know about colonial history is wrong? What if history is driven by vanity and unexamined moral claims? What if fabrication and corruption are so integral to history that it must be written anew? These questions, posed by Nietzsche, are answered in this exciting new work. The False Past takes a disturbing escapade through Australia’s colonial past. Using a Nietzschean evaluation (...) of how the eternal recurrence of suffering worked in practice, it announces a fresh vision for frontier history. And in the finest Nietzschean tradition, Price reveals the uncaring absurdity and inconsistency of settlers in the pioneer past as their supreme failing because it produces contemporary trauma. The False Past evaluates claims to colonial nobility, too. Who were the souls aiming beyond humanity who rose up Down Under? Was its Übermensch a dark and moody genius with a taste for conquest, a supreme talent in pastoral profiteering, an Indigenous exemplar, or a cunning bushranger out on a mission? Awkward and confronting, bold and experimental, this book often says the unsayable. The False Past lays siege to nostalgia, piety, vanity and nihilism to explain how unfounded exceptionalism has come to rule our lives. A revisionist assault on settled history, The False Past promises to spark debate among readers for many years to come. (shrink)

O último livro escrito por Nietzsche, Ecce homo: como alguém se torna o que se é, é uma de suas obras mais controversas, tendo sido tomada como sinal de prepotência, como autoexposição egocêntrica e como prenúncio do colapso que interrompeu sua trajetória intelectual em janeiro de 1889. As controvérsias foram alimentadas, em parte, pela peculiar narrativa encontrada no livro – ele conta a si sua vida e obra em tom elogioso e hiperbólico –, em parte, pelo fato de que a (...) tardia publicação de Ecce homo, ocorrida apenas em 1908, favoreceu o contraste com o apócrifo A vontade de poder – reunião de anotações publicada em 1901 como ‘obra principal’ de Nietzsche. Nosso propósito neste artigo é refletir sobre as possíveis contribuições do teor ‘autobiográfico’ e ‘autocrítico’ de Ecce homo para o caminho de pensamento do filósofo alemão. Nossa hipótese é que a narrativa experimentada no livro possui uma íntima relação com temas precedentes da obra nietzschiana e com a tarefa da transvaloração de todos os valores. Por meio de uma autoencenação, da colocação de um certo ‘Nietzsche’ em cena, o filósofo avança em sua crítica à metafísica – e à sua versão popular, a moral cristã – enquanto realça a mundanidade de sua perspectiva, seu caráter contingente e seu condicionamento pelas “pequenas coisas”, decisão que nos parece carregar uma relevante dimensão filosófica: Nietzsche assume a parcialidade e explicita o interesse envolvido em sua tomada de posição no seio da cultura. (shrink)

-/- Nietzsche’nin doğruluk ve bilgi hakkındaki görüşleri onun felsefesinin en fazla karanlıkta kalmış bölümüdür. Bunun bir nedeni, onun bu görüşlerinin yayımlanmış eserleri ve yayımlanmamış notlarında dağınık bir şekilde bulunmasıdır. Aynı zamanda, Nietzsche’ye göre doğruluk ve bilginin ne anlama geldiğini anlamak için onun güç istenci ve perspektivizm teorilerine de nüfûz etmek gerekir. -/- Birbirine çok sıkı bir şekilde bağlı olan bu kavram ve teorilerden oluşan yapı anlaşıldığında Nietzsche felsefesinin bütününe ilişkin pek çok yanlış anlaşılma ve çarpıtma daha açık bir şekilde gün (...) yüzüne çıkar. Bu nedenle, bu kitap yalnızca felsefeciler için değil, Nietzsche’yi anlamak isteyen tüm okurlar için yararlı bir inceleme niteliğini taşımaktadır. (shrink)

The task of understanding and perfecting international and diplomatic relations is becoming more crucial, given the frequency of political disputes and intimidation via public diplomacy. At the root of this trend is the dominance of political personalities in international relations, dictating the direction and progress of conflict control on the international scene. With increasing technological, biological, chemical and nuclear weaponry, ignorance of and any mistaken decision on the diplomatic terrain can come at a huge cost of war and anarchy. At (...) the heart of personalities and human relations, however, Nietzsche argues, is the will to power, that singular striving of each individual to assert his individuality and uniqueness, most times, to the detriment of collective interest. The objective of this paper is to expose what Nietzsche means by will to power in order to allow us have a handle on its influence on politics and social relations. The research question, therefore, addresses the relationship between will to power and the nature of political relationships in public diplomacy. The paper will achieve this by an expository and analytical method of research. The paper finds out that it is apposite that we gain control over the tendency for political persons to exploit public diplomacy to dastardly ends. This is to prevent a consequent descent into anarchy, one that Hobbes describes in grotesque clarity as the war of everyone against everyone, with life being “nasty, brutish and short.”. (shrink)