14: Our Virtues as Will to Power (And Nothing Besides!)

This episode is the culmination of several weeks of episodes on the topic of morality, drives, the body, free will, reason v/s the passions, and the master and slave morality. With all that we've learned as a foundation, in this episode we will give a generic definition of the phenomenon of morality from the Nietzschean perspective, and explore Nietzsche's explanation for why man engages in morality-building. At the deepest foundations, Nietzsche believes that mankind moralizes from the same underlying, driving force that is behind all life: the will to power. We will explore just what the will to power means, which Zarathustra says is synonymous with the process of self-overcoming. We will then examine how it is that the will to power produces our second-order drives, such as the will to truth, or the drive to obey the community's morality. We'll conclude by examining the practical applications of Nietzsche's level of "moral meta-analysis", how we can use this analysis to turn a critical eye to different world-historical moral systems, and, finally, what this understanding will to power means for our lives. This episode draws on the arguments of Walter Kaufmann from his book, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. I also recommend this very helpful post by Lebensmaler on the Nietzsche subreddit: Polysemy of the Word Morality in Nietzsche's Writing. Episode art: Rembrandt -- Moses with the Ten Commandments (Courtesy of Wikimedia commons)