Will to Power

The will to power is a phrase made popular by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844—1900). Though rarely used in his principal works, it appears frequently in the selection of posthumous notes and fragments later published, in corrupted form, by his sister, Elizabeth Förster-Nietzsche, in a volume called The Will to Power.

Nietzsche may have been influenced by numerous writers, including Plato who floated the idea of power, meaning the ability to create or undergo change, as a criterion of being (Sophist, 274e), along with the theory that a lack of power made persons and things ugly (Hippias Major, 295e). Cicero, who argued that the lust for power was the strongest of the passions, is another likely influence. Another is Arthur Schopenhauer, whose principal ontological category was the will to live, which was meant to include all active forces in the universe under the category of will. Of course, the fact that the chief characteristic of the god of monotheism is omnipotence was not lost on Nietzsche, who held that resolve and strength of will are widely admired because they are widely lacking.

Nietzsche's early work employs a hedonistic psychology in which humanity is driven toward pleasure and ruled over by vanity, fear, and habit. In later works, his view is that the organism seeks to increase and discharge its strength. This psychology of power subsumes his old hedonism, so that feelings of pleasure are interpreted as feelings of strength. The good is defined as that which gives one strength. Even laughter is seen as a feeling of one's own sufficiency or superiority, that is, of one's strength.

Interpretations of Nietzsche's thinking on the psychology of power differ widely. Some believe he treated power over others as one preference among others, though it is the strongest or most attractive. If so, then Nietzsche could be suggesting that, for example, in a choice between the combinations of high desire satisfaction with a low degree of power or low desire satisfaction with a high degree of power, the latter will be preferred. This view, upheld by many Nazis, treats power as a position of command or control over others, and assigns to Nietzsche what is essentially Cicero's thesis. Most theorists now reject this construal of Nietzsche. Those who emphasize his concern for personal adequacy and capability point out that a high degree of power over others can be rejected if it implies a low degree of self-mastery. For these theorists, significant power over others or over worldly affairs need not outweigh the demerits of personal inadequacy, because both are aspects of power. Nevertheless, all theorists agree that where Freudians seek to discover what misdirection of sexuality is responsible for a person's acting or believing in a certain way, the Nietzschean psychologist properly asks what means of experiencing or maintaining a sensation of personal adequacy, agency, or superiority is involved in a person's acting or believing in a certain way. Nietzsche's psychological outlook on human nature has enjoyed a wide influence, early instances of which can be seen in the work of Randolph Bourne and Elsie Clews-Parsons.

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