Nietzsche, Volumes 3&4: The Will to Power as Knowledge and as Metaphysics & Nihilism

Nietzsche #3-4

by Martin Heidegger, David Farrell Krell

A landmark discussion between two great thinkers--the second (combining volumes III and IV) of two volumes inquiring into the central issues of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Theory, 20th Century, Reference, Metaphysics

608 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) was a German philosopher whose work is perhaps most readily associated with phenomenology and existentialism, although his thinking should be identified as part of such philosophical movements only with extreme care and qualification. His ideas have exerted a seminal influence on the development of contemporary European philosophy. They have also had an impact far beyond philosophy, for example in architectural theory (see e.g., Sharr 2007), literary criticism (see e.g., Ziarek 1989), theology (see e.g., Caputo 1993), psychotherapy (see e.g., Binswanger 1943/1964, Guignon 1993) and cognitive science (see e.g., Dreyfus 1992, 2008; Wheeler 2005; Kiverstein and Wheeler forthcoming).

Reviews

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easily defendable proposition would be that the two most important books within the 20th century that were written in the 20th century would be Heidegger’s ‘Being and Time’ and Wittgenstein’s ‘Tractatus’. It would be possible to add Heidegger’s Volume III and IV on Nietzsche as the 3rd and 4th most important book since it obviously had an oversized influence on the post-modernist philosophers, and within the 20th century the post-modernist philosophers were the cat’s meow, but not so much today in the 21st century.

Post-modernist philosophy in the late 20th century would start with three names: Derrida, Foucault and Rorty. It would be possible to flippantly describe each of the big three post-modernist philosophers thusly: Derrida basis his philosophy on Heidegger and his interpretation of Nietzsche (Heidegger gets primacy); Foucault based his philosophy on Nietzsche as interpreted by Heidegger (Nietzsche takes precedence); and Rorty used Heidegger’s method of exposition especially as laid out in Volume IV. A lot of Rorty’s ‘Contingency, Irony and Solidarity’ echoes and reverberate within these two volumes especially Volume IV.

Everything else I’ve read by Heidegger is always about himself or how great his philosophy is or how great his ‘Being and Time’ is. These two volumes are an exception especially Volume III. He actually focuses on the person he is talking about and lets someone else besides himself take center stage while providing just enough of himself such that he writes a book that gets at the heart of his subject matter while transcending himself when need be. (The editor/translator says as much in the end of this book).

I like Nietzsche. Yes, he is most certainly a proto-fascist but he has something that still reverberates today. To summarize in one sentence what Heidegger is saying about what Nietzsche meant would be something along the lines that Nietzsche’s foundation for man is a will-to-power understood by an eternal-recurrence-of-the-same as embodied by a superman who has reevaluated all values that leads to justice after having embraced nihilism.

Everything substantial struggles with two fundamental questions of the kind such that what does it mean to be human and what is existence. The first question has historically been answered such that ‘man is a rational animal’, that is our essence is rationality and that’s what makes us human. Nietzsche (and Heidegger) will not have that. To cut to the quick, Nietzsche will say that our essence is ‘will to power’, a will for a will (drive) to exist through an appeal to our instinctual nature. That is what makes up our ontological foundation; that which gives us ground. The second question on ‘what is existence’ is answered by Nietzsche as filtered through Heidegger’s angst on ‘why is there something rather than nothing’, as Heidegger says elsewhere (and probably in this book too) is the most fundamental question there is and leads to giving primacy to nihilism over Being.

Nietzsche as seen by Heidegger will not allow all of philosophy to continue not to resolve or at least attempt to reconcile our meaning of existing and who we are. A Nietzsche quote from this book ‘man would rather will nothingness, than will nothing at all’. Such a typical and sublimely beautiful quote that has hidden layers and irony that make Nietzsche always so interesting to read and understand.

Another great quote Heidegger quotes Nietzsche on is a ‘cure for Plato is to reread Thucydides’. This gets at metaphysics going off the rails starting with Plato and losing its way by forgetting that truth is not in a unknowable realm and reveals itself through ‘alethia’ (unconcealment). (If it is not obvious, Thucydides wrote one of the best books ever ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’ and published it slightly before Plato wrote about metaphysics and is a book that reveals what is unhidden and does not have Being as truth, or thinking or certainty just uses Being as alethia. Heidegger will have long sections on the cogito and certainty within us and how Nietzsche sees it differently).

Heidegger will say that Nietzsche inverts Plato and that our meaning is not outside of us and doesn’t need us to outsource it to the infinite or to a book from on high. Heidegger will show how Nietzsche thinks we should stop looking outside of yourself for a meaning bestower; realize that the values that are thrown at you and which you are falling towards need to be reevaluated in order to give us meaning; life needs to be lived as if you are in a constant presence of an eternal-recurrence-of-the-same; your drive through your will-to-power is your ultimate choice; and most of all you must find your own perspective that allows for the most meaningful truth for yourself.

All of the above is in these books. Nietzsche is not really a philosopher. He was a philologist (modern day linguist). He is not always coherent from book to book or even within each of his books. Heidegger gives one reasonable interpretation to what Nietzsche meant. (I challenge anyone to come up with what Nietzsche meant by ‘will to power’ and not contradict what Nietzsche will say latter about it, for example).

Nietzsche, in the end, knows we are thrown into a world with no meaning and that we aren’t special except to ourselves and from the meaning that we give ourselves. We are born alone, we die alone. There is no special God’s eye view and it is for us to learn what serves us best. Our greatest freedom is choosing our own freedom from the cards we have been dealt and those who outsource their belief outside of themselves are the real nihilist since they are void of meaning outside of themselves.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

According to Heidegger, metaphysics started with Plato who interpreted Being as an idea. Nietzsche was the last in this metaphysical history and he brought it to an end. Nietzsche asked “what does nihilism mean?”; and he answered “that the uppermost values devaluate themselves.” Moreover, he stated that “the aim is lacking; the 'why?' receives no answer.”
Thinking within the Greek distinction of Being/Becoming (as permanent/unstable), in order to promote values that preserve/enhance life, and as an attempt to overcome nihilism through will - Nietzsche proposed: “to stamp Becoming with the character of Being – that is the supreme will to power”. Eternal recurrence of the same is to Nietzsche this constant permanentizing of the unstable. Moreover, Nietzsche's metaphysics of will to power re-interprets all the fundamental metaphysical positions that precede it in the light of valuative thought. As such, this devaluation/valuation metaphysical process is not just one historical event among the others, but is the fundamental event of Western history.
The devaluation of the highest values makes the world seem valueless. The values are gone, but beings as a whole remain. Beings possess objective actuality, overshadow and no longer need their Being, and the Being collapses into oblivion. When metaphysics asks “what is the being as such?”, since the question is addressed to the being and not to the Being, the answer is already implied in the question: being as such exists with respect to essentia and existentia. That is, metaphysics is inherently theology (as the quest for the first causes, essence, or will to power) and ontology (existence, permanence, or the eternal occurrence of the same). According to Heidegger, Nietzsche's “God is dead” is nothing more than inverted theology and ontology; that is, still proper theology and ontology.
Nietzsche carries out to the most extreme consequences other essential decisions from the history of metaphysics: the subjectivism is brought to completion by making the body the guideline in interpreting of the world, the Cartesian certitude and truth are established by transforming and securing beings in their perfectly disposability and malleability, the Greek distinction Being/Becoming (true/apparent) is inverted as the selfsame of eternal recurrence of the same and will to power, the Platonic idea is replaced by the “revaluation of all values”, and so on.
In order to provide an answer to the above “why?” of nihilism, Heidegger reminds us that: nihilism started with Plato and with the beginning of metaphysics when these values were posed in the first place, that metaphysics is not a human invention, that metaphysics can only think being and that Being itself must necessarily remain unthought, that according to metaphysics there is nothing to Being itself, and so on. As such, there is a more fundamental nihilism here at work when compared with Nietzsche's nihilism; that is metaphysics as metaphysics is nihilism proper.
According to Heidegger we must overcome our compulsion to lay our hands on everything, understand that our struggle to master beings means nothing more than to interpret them metaphysically without being able to understand their essence, that we no longer perceive the confrontation between the power over beings and the truth of Being, that in the age of fulfilled metaphysics we hardly encounters in thought what is simple, and so on. In order to overcome this destitution, there is a need to experience our need for Being. However, since it is more essential and older, the destiny of Being is less familiar to us than the lack of God – God that Nietzsche declared dead with such insight and joy.

[Erik C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Volume 3 right now. It's Heidegger leading the reader (or listener, as it is his notes from a lecture course) along the 'thought path' that lead Nietzsche to formulate the Will to Power. The Will to Power is, as Heidegger says, Niezsche's essential thought, and the culmination and end of western metaphysics.

Instead of interpreting what Nietzsche means by "Will to Power" Heidegger attempts to reconstruct (using Nietzsche's published writing but mostly unpublished notes) what went into Nietzsche's formulation of the idea.

[Braden Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heidegger is the master interpreter of Nietzsche, not because he understands him (which it seems he does anyhow) but because he demonstrates where Nietzsche does not go far enough in the upheaval of metaphysics. A book about another philosophers work that is in itself a highly original work.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my review of volumes 1 & 2.

[noblethumos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martin Heidegger’s monumental work, “Nietzsche Volumes 3 & 4,” represents a formidable contribution to the corpus of Nietzschean scholarship and existential philosophy. These two volumes, constituting the culmination of Heidegger’s decades-long engagement with Friedrich Nietzsche’s oeuvre, provide a profound and complex interpretation of Nietzsche’s thought. In this review, I will endeavor to elucidate the major themes, methodological approach, and critical insights presented in Heidegger’s work.

Heidegger’s endeavor in “Nietzsche Volumes 3 & 4” is twofold: to elucidate Nietzsche’s philosophy in its entirety and to synthesize his own existential-phenomenological framework with Nietzschean ideas. The volumes are structured thematically rather than chronologically, which mirrors Nietzsche’s own eclectic and multifaceted writings.

Heidegger begins by addressing Nietzsche’s central concepts, such as the “will to power” and the “eternal recurrence.” He interprets the will to power as the fundamental driving force of existence, representing the incessant striving and becoming of all things. The eternal recurrence, according to Heidegger, is the ultimate test of one’s authenticity, challenging individuals to affirm their lives in the face of infinite repetition.

One of the most significant aspects of Heidegger’s interpretation is his emphasis on Nietzsche’s critique of metaphysics. He contends that Nietzsche’s philosophical project is a radical departure from traditional metaphysical thinking, which Heidegger explores through the concept of “nihilism” as the negation of metaphysical values.

Heidegger also delves into Nietzsche’s views on art, culture, and language, demonstrating how these domains are essential to understanding the full scope of Nietzschean thought. Nietzsche’s perspectivism, for instance, is seen as a fundamental aspect of his philosophy, emphasizing the plurality of interpretations and the rejection of any absolute truth.

Heidegger’s methodology in these volumes is quintessentially Heideggerian, rooted in existential-phenomenological analysis. He engages in a hermeneutical exercise, carefully dissecting Nietzsche’s texts, elucidating their hidden meanings, and situating them within the broader context of existential inquiry.

While Heidegger’s work on Nietzsche is undoubtedly a tour de force of philosophical scholarship, it is not without its challenges. The profound density of Heidegger’s prose and his penchant for neologisms can make the text inaccessible to some readers. Additionally, his highly interpretive approach may be seen as a departure from the more straightforward exegesis sought by some scholars.

“Nietzsche Volumes 3 & 4” by Martin Heidegger represents a monumental contribution to Nietzschean studies and existential philosophy. Heidegger’s intricate interpretation of Nietzsche’s thought, his exploration of themes like the will to power and nihilism, and his methodological rigor make these volumes indispensable for scholars and students of both philosophers. While the text is not without its challenges, its intellectual richness and profundity are sure to reward those willing to engage with it.

These volumes stand as a testament to Heidegger’s enduring influence in contemporary philosophy and his ability to shed new light on one of the most enigmatic figures in the history of thought, Friedrich Nietzsche.

GPT

[Ruo Jia · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason not clicking as v1-2, but the whole nihilism unpacking is incredibly fascinating. Seems to land tho more on H’s own formulation of Da-sein and concealing of Being as shelter (the necessity of nihilism) along being as will to power (critique of N?; not sure about Being being in relation w Becoming (N’s stamp Becoming with Being

[Lamar · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to understand perspetive.