The Will to Power (Penguin Classics)

The Will to Power is, when read closely, one of the scariest texts of philosophy you will ever read. It’s not because of the Nietzchean Superman; similar things had been said long ago by Machiavelli. It’s also not that Nietzsche was unable to complete the book because of the loss of his mind; though indications of this can be seen in parts of the text.No, it’s that Nietzsche is one of the first writers to argue that the goal of the mind is not to seek the truth. He begins with their being no such thing as a thing-in-itself and then builds to a crescendo in declaring that even the law of non-contradiction is false.For Nietzsche, Bacon’s “knowledge is power” then takes on a new and dangerous meaning. It’s that the human brain does nothing more than seek to establish power over a chaotic world by building sciences, logics and moralities. All of it has no necessary connection with understanding the world—it’s just a means of asserting one species’ power over other life. If an alien species had intelligence there’s no reason to think it would agree with anything we have discovered at all.In the twentieth century, of course, this became less and less believable. Einstein was known to ponder why the mind could construct mathematics that so ably modeled the universe; but he didn’t think that it didn’t model the universe at all.Personally, I think it’s somewhat absurd to realize that humankind can send a probe to Mars that lands with a sensitivity of inches and then say that all of our “knowledge” is just an assertion of brute force over chaos. Even so, I recognize the influence this thought has held on such able philosophers as Derrida and Foucault.Moreover, far from being merely a text in the history of ideas, The Will to Power is one of the most frightening portrayals of the human condition ever expressed. For those with enough confidence in the intellect not to fall for its conclusions, The Will to Power represents an apogee in the effort to provide an account asserting humanity’s fundamental irrationality. Highly recommended.

Excellent

This review is largely a response to reviewer "The Shoulders of Giants" and others who have come to view Nietzsche's ideas as problematic. I am also using the R. Kevin Hill translation, published in Penguin Classics from 2017.To begin, yes, The Will to Power (Der Wille zur Macht in German), is a collection of notes complied from Nietzsche's notebooks from the late 1880's, that were originally planned for his self-proclaimed magnum opus: a project titled The Transvaluation of All Values. The first book in the series was "The Antichrist", but he abandoned the work as other projects took precedence and his health began to dwindle. During the last few years of his life, his sister Elizabeth and friend Peter Gast, organized the notes into what they thought the most coherent way it could be, while simultaneously promoting their celebrity, especially with the Nazi's. However, most academics agree the despite their editing, most of Nietzsche's ideas remained intact.This is what I would like to address next, the man's ideas. If you are a follower or student of Nietzsche, you'll know that The Will to Power is supposed to be the culmination of his thought, but by no means its origins. The ideas found in this collection are found in many other works such as: "Human, All too Human", "The Joyous Science", "Beyond Good and Evil", "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", and "The Genealogy of Morals", just to name a few. Nietzsche is a cultural critic, and he spends the first part of this book diagnosing the problem of nihilism, something he feared very greatly would transform the coming next two centuries. With the claim that "God is Dead", people fail to find meaning in their lives, and become passive nihilists, what Nietzsche calls the herd, or sees the emergence of "the last men". He saw this coming because of his genealogical project in revealing the ascetic principles that Christianity and Western values are founded upon. If you want to take Nietzsche seriously, then you mustn't pass off his ideas as problematic, we must truly grapple with his implications. Ideas like Slave Morality are not to say that Masters are better, Nietzsche wants us to smash all of the old values, and create our own.On that note, that is the essence of the will to power. Instead of a metaphysics based on survival of the fittest, Nietzsche says that exercising our will to power is a creative act; it is a process of overcoming, to become who a are. The ubermensch is not a physically superior human being, but a psychologically superior one; an evolution; not someone who dominates others, but creates a new world in their image.Yes, Nietzsche's views are anti-liberal and not humanistic, that is because he has uncovered what makes those ideologies nihilistic. Nietzsche is a radical individualist: he hated liberalism, socialism, nationalism, antisemitism, mediocrity, and the herd. However, is was mildly-mannered in public, and worked with an early feminist icon to encourage women to read and become academics. His views may seem antiquated, but that may be because we haven't fully appreciated his project.If you are worried about nihilism, desire to join a similar project to Nietzsche, then this book is for you.

This edition is great except for one thing: It puts all notes at the back of the book, including translations from French, Latin, and other languages and obscure references. Could be better by having these as footnotes such as Kaufman's Portable Nietzsche edition - too much page-flipping. Otherwise, great.

Nietzsche is definitely full of good ideas, but can be hard to follow. If my book hadn't been already used (although I ordered mine new), I would have loved it.

Ok read, most of it is complete nonsense, but does have good parts.

I just received a dirty and damaged 'new' book. I have never experienced something like this before.

This book lights up other side of life it Talks about most popular critiques about Philosophy by prominent authors like Plato, kant, schenoper . If you have alot of confusins ,Go for it , this will confuse you more & you will be okay with it .Best part I prefer in this book was It's Critique of Morality concldes with no morality .

Excellent book for all Nietzsche lovers. Very good translation, very good edition and a fascinating read. I have read this text maybe four times and the clarity of this latest edition has opened up new passages for me. Highly recommended

go for it

Essential reading to understand contemporary political ideas.