Author: Friedrich Nietzsche
Publisher: Livraria Press
Published:
Total Pages: 259
ISBN-13: 3689382432
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"Der Wille zur Macht" (The Will to Power) is a posthumously published collection of Nietzsche's notes and unpublished writings, organized by his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Although Nietzsche did compile the notes and drafts titled "The Will to Power", it was not published during his lifetime. Instead, it was posthumously edited and published by his sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, and Peter Gast in 1901. Due to the enormous size of the document, this was published in two different parts. The book is often considered controversial due to questions about its editing and compilation by his sister and the team of Academics who first published it. However, it contains important insights into Nietzsche's evolving thoughts on power, creativity, and the nature of reality. The concept of the will to power is central to Nietzsche's philosophy and is found in nearly every single one of his works, major and minor. The Will-to-Power (Wille-zur-Macht) is a kind of "Life force" similar to the Logos of Heraclitus mentioned in the New Testament, and the Leibnizian Via Viva used in the Physics of the day. This is the driving force behind all human action and the desire for self-overcoming, a re-formulation of Schopenhauer's Will-to-Live (Wille-zum-Leben). The term Will-to-Power, presented more fully in his notebooks from about 1885 and found informally in his childhood essays, embodies a multifaceted interpretation of power that includes the affirmation of eternal cycles of life and death and the assertion of individual autonomy in shaping one's interpretation of existence. This will is intertwined with the interpretation of life, where the ability to integrate even the most horrific experiences leads to "tragic greatness" and the acceptance, even embrace, of fate. The "will to power" becomes the means to autonomy, "liberating" the individual through the freedom gained from integrated life interpretations including "right" and "wrong". Nietzsche's idea has inspired various interpretations, ranging from Heidegger's metaphysical inquiry to Foucault's discourse theory, while contemporary perspectives tend to see it as less central to Nietzschean philosophy, emphasizing its critical function against fixed truths and its role in shaping interpretive processes rather than as a static state of power. This is a new 2024 translation from this original 1884 German manuscript (first manuscript published in 1901) and contains a new Afterword by the Translator, a timeline of Nietzsche's life and works, an index with descriptions of his core concepts and summaries of his complete body of works. This translation is designed to allow the armchair philosopher to engage deeply with Nietzsche's works without having to be a full-time Academic. The language is modern and clean, with simplified sentence structures and diction to make Nietzsche's complex language and arguments as accessible as possible. This Reader's Edition also contains extra material that amplifies the manuscript with autobiographical, historical and linguistic context. This provides the reader a holistic view of this very enigmatic philosopher as both an introduction and an exploration of Nietzsche's works; from his general understanding of his philosophic project to an exploration of the depths of his metaphysics and unique contributions. This edition contains: • An Afterword by the Translator on the history, impact and intellectual legacy of Nietzsche • Translation notes on the original German, Latin and Greek manuscript • An index of Philosophical concepts used by Nietzsche with a focus on Existentialism and Phenomenology • A chronological list of Nietzsche's entire body of works • A detailed timeline of Nietzsche's life and works
