World Overcoming, in Nietzsche, Will to Power, § 333

by Corry Shores
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World Overcoming

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Will to Power

§ 333

(1883-1888)

In Ethics we think that things ought to be different; "dissatisfaction would thus be the germ of ethics."

There are two ways we can rescue ourselves from ethics.

1) We can try to be in states where we do not have the feeling that things should be different, or

2) We can see the stupidity of ethic's presumption.

To desire that one thing in life be different is to desire that everything be different.

it involves a condemnatory critique of the whole. But life itself is such a desire!

It is ludicrous to critique everything in terms of how things ought to be. Hence it is much "higher and more serious" to "ascertain what is, as it is."

But also consider that our desire that things 'be what they ought to be' leads to our desire to know what is. We learn the way things are after we ask the questions "How? is it possible? why precisely so?"

The world does not go according to our desires. We wonder why. And this leads us to learning how things go in the world.

Yet maybe our desire for things to 'be the way they ought to be' is really just our desire to overcome the world.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Will to Power. Ed. Walter Kaufmann. Transl Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale. New York: Random House Vintage Books, 1967.