The will to power (german: der Wille zur Macht) is a concept in the
philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. The will to power describes what
Nietzsche may have believed to be the main driving force in humans. However, the concept was never systematically defined in Nietzsche's work, leaving its interpretation open to debate. Usage of the term by Nietzsche can be summarized as self-determination, the concept of actualizing one's will onto one's self or one's surroundings, and coincides heavily with
egoism.
Alfred Adler incorporated the will to power into his
individual psychology. This can be contrasted to the other
Viennese Viennese may refer to:
* Vienna, the capital of Austria
* Viennese people, List of people from Vienna
* Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna
* Music of Vienna, musical styles in the city
* Viennese Waltz, genre of ballroom dance
* V ...
schools of
psychotherapy
Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome pro ...
:
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
's
pleasure principle (will to pleasure) and
Viktor Frankl
Viktor Emil Frankl (26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997)
was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force. Logotherapy is part ...
's
logotherapy
Logotherapy was developed by neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl and is based on the premise that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find a meaning in life. Frankl describes it as "the Third Viennese School of Psychothe ...
(will to meaning). Each of these schools advocates and teaches a very different essential driving force in human beings.
''Kraft'' vs. ''Macht''
Some of the misconceptions of the will to power, including
Nazi appropriation of Nietzsche's philosophy, arise from overlooking Nietzsche's distinction between ''Kraft'' ("force" or "strength") and ''Macht'' ("power" or "might"). ''Kraft'' is primordial strength that may be exercised by anything possessing it, while ''Macht'' is, within Nietzsche's philosophy, closely tied to sublimation and "self-overcoming", the conscious channeling of ''Kraft'' for creative purposes.
Early influences
Nietzsche's early thinking was influenced by that of
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...
, whom he first discovered in 1865. Schopenhauer puts a central emphasis on will and in particular has a concept of the "
will to live
is a 1999 Japanese comedy drama film directed by Kaneto Shindō starring Rentarō Mikuni and Shinobu Otake. The film won the Golden St. George and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 21st Moscow International Film Festival.
Plot
Yasukichi visits Mount K ...
". Writing a generation before Nietzsche, he explained that the
universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...
and everything in it is driven by a primordial will to live, which results in a desire in all living creatures to avoid death and to procreate. For Schopenhauer, this will is the most fundamental aspect of reality – more fundamental even than being.
Another important influence was
Roger Joseph Boscovich, whom Nietzsche discovered and learned about through his reading, in 1866, of
Friedrich Albert Lange's 1865 ''
Geschichte des Materialismus'' (''History of Materialism''). As early as 1872, Nietzsche went on to study Boscovich's book ''Theoria Philosophia Naturalis'' for himself. Nietzsche makes his only reference in his published works to Boscovich in ''
Beyond Good and Evil'', where he declares war on "soul-atomism". Boscovich had rejected the idea of "materialistic atomism", which Nietzsche calls "one of the best refuted theories there is". The idea of centers of force would become central to Nietzsche's later theories of "will to power".
Appearance of the concept in Nietzsche's work
As the 1880s began, Nietzsche began to speak of the "Desire for Power" (''Machtgelüst''); this appeared in ''
The Wanderer and his Shadow'' (1880) and ''
Daybreak'' (1881). ''Machtgelüst'', in these works, is the pleasure of the feeling of
power and the hunger to overpower.
Wilhelm Roux
Wilhelm Roux (9 June 1850 – 15 September 1924) was a German zoologist and pioneer of experimental embryology.
Early life
Roux was born and educated in Jena, Germany where he attended university and studied under Ernst Haeckel. He also attended u ...
published his ''The Struggle of Parts in the Organism'' (''Der Kampf der Teile im Organismus'') in 1881, and Nietzsche first read it that year. The book was a response to Darwinian theory, proposing an alternative mode of evolution. Roux was a disciple of and influenced by
Ernst Haeckel
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new sp ...
, who believed the struggle to survive occurred at the
cellular
Cellular may refer to:
*Cellular automaton, a model in discrete mathematics
* Cell biology, the evaluation of cells work and more
* ''Cellular'' (film), a 2004 movie
*Cellular frequencies, assigned to networks operating in cellular RF bands
*Cell ...
level. The various cells and tissues struggle for finite resources, so that only the strongest survive. Through this mechanism, the body grows stronger and better adapted. Rejecting
natural selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...
, Roux's model assumed a
neo-Lamarckian or
pangenetic model of inheritance.
Nietzsche began to expand on the concept of ''Machtgelüst'' in ''
The Gay Science'' (1882), where in a section titled "On the doctrine of the feeling of power", he connects the desire for cruelty with the pleasure in the feeling of power. Elsewhere in ''The Gay Science'' he notes that it is only "in intellectual beings that pleasure, displeasure, and will are to be found", excluding the vast majority of organisms from the desire for power.
Léon Dumont (1837–77), whose 1875 book ''Théorie scientifique de la sensibilité, le plaisir et la peine'' Nietzsche read in 1883, seems to have exerted some influence on this concept. Dumont believed that pleasure is related to increases in force. In ''The Wanderer'' and ''Daybreak'', Nietzsche had speculated that pleasures such as cruelty are pleasurable because of exercise of power. But Dumont provided a physiological basis for Nietzsche's speculation. Dumont's theory also would have seemed to confirm Nietzsche's claim that pleasure and pain are reserved for intellectual beings, since, according to Dumont, pain and pleasure require a coming to consciousness and not just a sensing.
In 1883 Nietzsche coined the phrase ''Wille zur Macht'' in ''
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
''Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None'' (german: Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen), also translated as ''Thus Spake Zarathustra'', is a work of philosophical fiction written by German philosopher Friedrich Niet ...
''. The concept, at this point, was no longer limited to only those intellectual beings that can actually experience the feeling of power; it now applied to all life. The phrase ''Wille zur Macht'' first appears in part 1, "1001 Goals" (1883), then in part 2, in two sections, "Self-Overcoming" and "Redemption" (later in 1883). "Self-Overcoming" describes it in most detail, saying it is an "unexhausted procreative will of life". There is will to power where there is life and even the strongest living things will risk their lives for more power. This suggests that the will to power is stronger than the will to survive.
Schopenhauer's
will to live
is a 1999 Japanese comedy drama film directed by Kaneto Shindō starring Rentarō Mikuni and Shinobu Otake. The film won the Golden St. George and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 21st Moscow International Film Festival.
Plot
Yasukichi visits Mount K ...
(''Wille zum Leben'') thus became a subsidiary to the will to power, which is the stronger will. Nietzsche thinks his notion of the will to power is far more useful than Schopenhauer's will to live for explaining various events, especially human behavior—for example, Nietzsche uses the will to power to explain both
ascetic
Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...
, life-denying impulses and strong, life-affirming impulses in the European tradition, as well as both:
master and slave morality
Master or masters may refer to:
Ranks or titles
* Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans
* Grandmaster (chess), National Maste ...
. He also finds the will to power to offer much richer explanations than
utilitarianism
In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals.
Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charact ...
's notion that all people really want to be happy, or the
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
nist's notion that people want to be unified with the Good.
Nietzsche read
William Rolph’s ''Biologische Probleme'' around mid-1884, and it clearly interested him, for his copy is heavily annotated. He made many notes concerning Rolph. Rolph was another
evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
ary
anti-Darwinist
Objections to evolution have been raised since evolutionary ideas came to prominence in the 19th century. When Charles Darwin published his 1859 book ''On the Origin of Species'', his theory of evolution (the idea that species arose through desc ...
like Roux, who wished to argue for evolution by a different mechanism than natural selection. Rolph argued that all life seeks primarily to expand itself. Organisms fulfill this need through assimilation, trying to make as much of what is found around them into part of themselves, for example by seeking to increase intake and nutriment. Life forms are naturally insatiable in this way.
Nietzsche's next published work was ''
Beyond Good and Evil'' (1886), where the influence of Rolph seems apparent. Nietzsche writes,
''Beyond Good and Evil'' has the most references to "will to power" in his published works, appearing in 11 aphorisms. The influence of Rolph and its connection to "will to power" also continues in book 5 of ''Gay Science'' (1887) where Nietzsche describes "will to power" as the instinct for "expansion of power" fundamental to all life.
Carl Nägeli's 1884 book ''Mechanisch-physiologische Theorie der Abstammungslehre'', which Nietzsche acquired around 1886 and subsequently read closely, also had considerable influence on his theory of will to power. Nietzsche wrote a letter to Franz Overbeck about it, noting that it has "been sheepishly put aside by Darwinists". Nägeli believed in a "perfection principle", which led to greater complexity. He called the seat of heritability the idioplasma, and argued, with a military metaphor, that a more complex, complicatedly ordered idioplasma would usually defeat a simpler rival. In other words, he is also arguing for internal evolution, similar to Roux, except emphasizing complexity as the main factor instead of strength.
Thus, Dumont's pleasure in the expansion of power, Roux's internal struggle, Nägeli's drive towards complexity, and Rolph's principle of insatiability and assimilation are fused together into the biological side of Nietzsche's theory of will to power, which is developed in a number of places in his published writings. Having derived the "will to power" from three anti-Darwin evolutionists, as well as Dumont, it seems appropriate that he should use his "will to power" as an anti-Darwinian explanation of evolution. He expresses a number of times the idea that adaptation and the struggle to survive is a secondary drive in the evolution of animals, behind the desire to expand one's power – the "will to power".
Nonetheless, in his notebooks he continues to expand the theory of the will to power. Influenced by his earlier readings of Boscovich, he began to develop a physics of the will to power. The idea of matter as centers of force is translated into matter as centers of will to power. Nietzsche wanted to slough off the theory of matter, which he viewed as a relic of the metaphysics of substance.
These ideas of an all-inclusive
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
or
metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
built upon the will to power do not appear to arise anywhere in his published works or in any of the final books published posthumously, except in the above-mentioned aphorism from ''Beyond Good & Evil'', where he references Boscovich (section 12). It does recur in his notebooks, but not all scholars treat these ideas as part of his thought.
Will to power and eternal recurrence
Throughout the 1880s, in his notebooks, Nietzsche developed a theory of the
"eternal recurrence of the same" and much speculation on the physical possibility of this idea and the mechanics of its actualization occur in his later notebooks. Here, the will to power as a potential physics is integrated with the postulated eternal recurrence. Taken literally as a theory for how things are, Nietzsche appears to imagine a physical universe of perpetual struggle and force that repeatedly completes its cycle and returns to the beginning.
Some scholars believe that Nietzsche used the concept of eternal recurrence metaphorically. But others, such as Paul Loeb, have argued that "Nietzsche did indeed believe in the truth of cosmological eternal recurrence." By either interpretation the acceptance of eternal recurrence raises the question of whether it could justify a trans-valuation of one's life, and be a necessary precursor to the overman in his/her perfect acceptance of all that is, for the love of life itself and
amor fati
is a Latin phrase that may be translated as "love of fate" or "love of one's fate". It is used to describe an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one's life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at the very least, necessa ...
.
Interpretations
In contemporary Nietzschean scholarship, some interpreters have emphasized the will to power as a psychological principle because Nietzsche applies it most frequently to human behavior. However, in Nietzsche's unpublished notes (later published by his sister as "The Will to Power"), Nietzsche sometimes seemed to view the will to power as a more (metaphysical) general force underlying ''all'' reality, not just human behavior—thus making it more directly analogous to Schopenhauer's will to live. For example, Nietzsche claims the "''world is the will to power—and nothing besides!''". Nevertheless, in relation to the entire body of Nietzsche's published works, many scholars have insisted that Nietzsche's principle of the will to power is less metaphysical and more pragmatic than Schopenhauer's will to live: while Schopenhauer thought the will to live was what was most real in the universe, Nietzsche can be understood as claiming only that the will to power is a particularly useful principle for his purposes.
Some interpreters also upheld a biological interpretation of the ''Wille zur Macht'', making it equivalent with some kind of
social Darwinism. For example, the concept was appropriated by some
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
s such as
Alfred Bäumler
Alfred Baeumler (sometimes Bäumler; ; 19 November 1887 – 19 March 1968), was an Austrian-born German philosopher, pedagogue and prominent Nazi ideologue. From 1924 he taught at the Technische Universität Dresden, at first as an unsalaried lect ...
, who may have drawn influence from it or used it to justify their expansive quest for power.
This reading was criticized by
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...
in his 1930s courses on Nietzsche—suggesting that raw physical or political power was not what Nietzsche had in mind. This is reflected in the following passage from Nietzsche's notebooks:
Opposed to a biological and voluntary conception of the ''Wille zur Macht'', Heidegger also argued that the will to power must be considered in relation to the ''
Übermensch'' and the ''
thought of eternal recurrence''—although this reading itself has been criticized by
Mazzino Montinari
Mazzino Montinari (4 April 1928 – 24 November 1986) was an Italian scholar of Germanistics. A native of Lucca, he became regarded as one of the most distinguished researchers on Friedrich Nietzsche, and harshly criticized the edition of '' The ...
as a "macroscopic Nietzsche".
Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Louis René Deleuze ( , ; 18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volu ...
also emphasized the connection between the will to power and eternal return. Both Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze were careful to point out that the primary nature of will to power is unconscious. This means that the drive to power is always already at work unconsciously, perpetually advancing the will of the one over the other. This thus creates the state of things in the observable or conscious world still operating through the same tension. Derrida is careful not to confine the will to power to human behavior, the mind, metaphysics, nor physical reality individually. It is the underlying life principle inaugurating all aspects of life and behavior, a self-preserving force. A sense of entropy and the eternal return, which are related, is always indissociable from the will to power. The eternal return of all memory initiated by the will to power is an entropic force again inherent to all life.
Opposed to this interpretation, the "will to power" can be understood (or misunderstood) to mean a struggle against one's surroundings that culminates in personal growth, self-overcoming, and self-perfection, and assert that the power held over others as a result of this is coincidental. Thus Nietzsche wrote:
It would be possible to claim that rather than an attempt to 'dominate over others', the "will to power" is better understood as the tenuous equilibrium in a system of forces' relations to each other. While a rock, for instance, does not have a conscious (or unconscious) "will", it nevertheless acts as a site of resistance within the "will to power" dynamic. Moreover, rather than 'dominating over others', "will to power" is more accurately positioned in relation to the subject (a mere
synecdoche
Synecdoche ( ) is a type of metonymy: it is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something is used to refer to the whole (''pars pro toto''), or vice versa (''totum pro parte''). The term comes from Greek .
Examples in common Engl ...
, both fictitious and necessary, for there is "no doer behind the deed," (see ''
On the Genealogy of Morals
''On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic'' (german: Zur Genealogie der Moral: Eine Streitschrift) is an 1887 book by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It consists of a preface and three interrelated treatises ('Abhandlungen' in German) that ...
'') and is an idea behind the statement that words are "seductions" within the process of
self-mastery and
self-overcoming. The "will to power" is thus a "cosmic" inner force acting in and through both animate and inanimate objects. Not just instincts but also higher level behaviors (even in humans) were to be reduced to the ''will to power''. This includes both such apparently harmful acts as physical
violence
Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...
, lying, and domination, on one hand, and such apparently non-harmful acts as gift-giving,
love
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...
, and
praise
Praise as a form of social interaction expresses recognition, reassurance or admiration.
Praise is expressed verbally as well as by body language (facial expression and gestures).
Verbal praise consists of a positive evaluations of another's a ...
on the other—though its manifestations can be altered significantly, such as through art and aesthetic experience. In ''
Beyond Good and Evil'', he claims that philosophers' "will to truth" (i.e., their apparent desire to dispassionately seek objective, absolute truth) is actually nothing more than a manifestation of their will to power; this will can be life-affirming or a manifestation of
nihilism
Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...
, but it is the will to power all the same.
Other Nietzschean interpreters dispute the suggestion that Nietzsche's concept of the will to power is merely and only a matter of narrow, harmless, humanistic self-perfection. They suggest that, for Nietzsche, power means self-perfection ''as well as'' outward,
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
,
elitist
Elitism is the belief or notion that individuals who form an elite—a select group of people perceived as having an intrinsic quality, high intellect, wealth, power, notability, special skills, or experience—are more likely to be construc ...
,
aristocratic domination
Domination or dominant may refer to:
Society
* World domination, which is mainly a conspiracy theory
* Colonialism in which one group (usually a nation) invades another region for material gain or to eliminate competition
* Chauvinism in which ...
. Nietzsche, in fact, explicitly and specifically defined the egalitarian state-idea as the embodiment of the will to power in decline:
Nietzsche thought that the drive is to manifest power rather than self-preservation. He thought it was most of the time incorrect that organisms live to prolong their life-time or extend the life of their species. Resistances are not painful annoyances but necessary for growth to occur. Suffering annoyances and being thwarted in ones attempt to accomplish a goal are necessary pre-conditions for our power. In 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' Nietzsche said "And life confided the secret to me: behold, it said, I am that which must always overcome itself." Nietzsche thought it necessary to have the power to discharge ones strength and thus fulfil ones purpose in the manifestation of will to power.
Individual psychology
Alfred Adler borrowed heavily from Nietzsche's work to develop his second Viennese school of psychotherapy called individual psychology. Adler (1912) wrote in his important book ''Über den nervösen Charakter (The Neurotic Constitution)'':
Adler's adaptation of the will to power was and still is in contrast to Sigmund Freud's
pleasure principle or the "will to pleasure", and to
Viktor Frankl
Viktor Emil Frankl (26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997)
was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force. Logotherapy is part ...
's
logotherapy
Logotherapy was developed by neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl and is based on the premise that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find a meaning in life. Frankl describes it as "the Third Viennese School of Psychothe ...
or the "will to meaning". Adler's intent was to build a movement that would rival, even supplant, others in psychology by arguing for the holistic integrity of psychological well-being with that of
social equality
Social equality is a state of affairs in which all individuals within a specific society have equal rights, liberties, and status, possibly including civil rights, freedom of expression, autonomy, and equal access to certain public goods and ...
. His interpretation of Nietzsche's will to power was concerned with the individual patient's overcoming of the
superiority-inferiority
In psychology, an inferiority complex is an intense personal feeling of inadequacy, often resulting in the belief that one is in some way deficient, or inferior, to others.
According to Alfred Adler, a feeling of inferiority may be brought ab ...
dynamic.
In ''Man's Search for Meaning'', Frankl compared his third Viennese school of psychotherapy with Adler's psychoanalytic interpretation of the will to power:
In fiction and popular culture
The 1999
4x strategy game ''
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri'' refers to the will to power by naming one of its available technologies by that name. A quote from ''
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
''Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None'' (german: Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen), also translated as ''Thus Spake Zarathustra'', is a work of philosophical fiction written by German philosopher Friedrich Niet ...
'' is given when the technology is discovered by the player.
The character of 'The Jackal' in the 2008 Ubisoft game ''Far Cry 2'' quotes from ''Beyond Good and Evil'' and the ''Will to Power''.
The 2016 4x strategy game ''
Stellaris'' also includes a technology with this name.
Bob Rosenberg, founder of
freestyle music
Freestyle music, also called Latin freestyle or Latin hip-hop ''(sic)'' is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in the New York metropolitan area and Philadelphia, primarily among Hispanic Americans and Italian Americans in the 1980s. I ...
group
Will to Power chose the name for the group as an homage to German philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
's theory of an individual's fundamental "will to power".
[ Bronson, Fred (2003). ''The Billboard Book of No. 1 Hits'', 5th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 715.]
The first title in the ''
Xenosaga
''Xenosaga'' is a role-playing video game series developed by Monolith Soft and primarily published by Namco. Forming part of the wider '' Xeno'' metaseries, ''Xenosaga'' is set in a science fiction universe and follows a group of characters as th ...
'' trilogy is
''Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht''.
On September 8, 2017, melodic death metal band
Arch Enemy released an album entitled ''
Will to Power''.
Arch Enemy: Discography
/ref>
The book makes an appearance in the 1933 Barbara Stanwyck movie ''Baby Face Babyface or Baby Face can refer to:
Nicknames
* Lester Joseph Gillis a.k.a. Baby Face Nelson, an infamous 1930s bank robber
* Roosevelt "Baby Face" Willette (1933–1971), an American hard bop and soul-jazz musician
* "Baby Face", Jimmy McLarnin ...
''.
In ''Smallville
''Smallville'' is an American superhero television series developed by writer-producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series was produced by Millar Gough ...
'' (Season 1, Episode 17), the Lex Luthor character reveals that his father gave him a copy of the book for his tenth birthday.
In '' The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim'' the dragon Paarthurnax tells the player character that the dragons were made to dominate: "The will to power is in our blood." Only through meditation has he been able to overcome his dominating compulsion.
See also
* Aggression
Aggression is overt or covert, often harmful, social interaction with the intention of inflicting damage or other harm upon another individual; although it can be channeled into creative and practical outlets for some. It may occur either reacti ...
* Heinz Ansbacher
* Maximum power principle
* True Will
* ''The Will to Power'' (manuscript)
References
External links
''Der "Wille zur Macht" – ''kein'' Buch von Friedrich Nietzsche''
a selection of texts from Nietzsche's estate related to his philosophical concept and book projects "Wille zur Macht" ("Will to Power"), edited by Bernd Jung based on th
''Digital Critical Edition of Nietzsche’s Works''
2012/13
"Nietzsche – Will to Power"
a video explication of the will to power concept.
{{Nietzsche
Concepts in metaphysics
Concepts in the philosophy of mind
Free will
Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
Motivation
Nihilism
Power (social and political) concepts