Nietzsche’s Philosophy: Will to Power and Nihilism
Apparent World vs. Real World
Plato’s view of reality consists of the world of ideas (the true) and the sensible world (the apparent).
Life as Decadent or in Decline
This is a feature of the whole of Western culture, based on the defense of values antithetical to life and the belief in an objective, true, immutable, and rational world as the basis of these values. Following Nietzsche’s assertions, we can distinguish several periods in Western decadence:
- The Greek world up to the Age of Pericles (5th Century BC): Harmony between the Dionysian and Apollonian.
- Euripides, Socrates, and Plato: The beginning of the decline, the Apollonian triumph over the Dionysian; Platonism begins.
- Christianity: Platonism for the people; the triumph of slave morality and resentment toward life.
- Contemporary Age: The start of the crisis of the metaphysical and the death of God.
- The Future: The possibility of overcoming Platonism and the appearance of the Superman.
Becoming
Nietzsche understands the history of philosophy very well and believes that development as such was incomprehensible to reason. Therefore, dogmatic philosophy was devoted to finding and confirming the existence of a being that becomes. This being, whether mathematical entities, an Idea, or an essence, would be an entity underlying all change and explained, along with the change, the multiplicity of things. The dogmatic error of Greek philosophy was the invention of the stasis of being. Dogmatic philosophy considered being as static and unchanging, existing in its own world, distinct from the sensible. Reality is merely apparent since it is diluted in the flow of becoming.
Will to Power
This is a momentum or impulse that always goes beyond and never stops. In a general sense, it is a universal driving force towards the constant increase of life. It is a desire for self-mastery and is manifested in all spheres of reality. It is not a law but a chaos of forces in constant struggle. However, it governs reality in the sense that reality itself is a plurality of expressions of the will to power.
It has two meanings:
- Cosmic: A universal force that constitutes the world.
- Anthropological: An effect on humans in the development of moral life and knowledge.
In humans, the will can manifest as life (the morality of lords) or unwillingness to do anything (typical of the morality of slaves, as a weak willpower). In the latter, Nietzsche sees the source of the decline of Western culture, as it has been founded on nothing, in the negation of life.
Nihilism
This is a vital and philosophical attitude that denies any value to existence or makes existence revolve around something lacking. For example, the religious (conceptual) construction of the figure of a supreme being, God.
Becoming
Nietzsche understands the history of philosophy very well and believes that development as such was incomprehensible to reason. Therefore, dogmatic philosophy was devoted to finding and confirming the existence of a being that becomes. This being, whether mathematical entities, an Idea, or an essence, would be an entity underlying all change and explained, along with the change, the multiplicity of things. The dogmatic error of Greek philosophy was the invention of the stasis of being. Dogmatic philosophy considered being as static and unchanging, existing in its own world, distinct from the sensible. Reality is merely apparent since it is diluted in the flow of becoming.