# 117 explained — Beyond Good and Evil

> Chapter companion for Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche.

## What happens

A single, dense aphorism that challenges the notion of a unified 'I' or will, arguing that what we perceive as overcoming an emotion is merely the expression of a different, competing emotion or set of emotions.

## Themes in this chapter

### Psychology as the Fundamental Science

Core theme. The excerpt performs a psychological reduction, analyzing a moral act (overcoming an emotion) as a conflict between underlying drives, not a triumph of reason or 'true self'.

### Will to Power

Implied. The dynamic described—one emotion's will overpowering another—is a microcosm of the will to power operating within the psyche, where the self is a battleground of competing forces.

## Character check-ins

### The Narrator

Presents a psychological insight that deconstructs the concept of a singular, sovereign will, acting as a diagnostician of the self.

## Key lines

> The will to overcome an emotion, is ultimately only the will of another, or of several other, emotions.

Self-mastery is an illusion; what we call 'overcoming' a feeling is just one feeling or group of feelings defeating another.

_Deconstructs the traditional view of willpower, framing internal conflict as a power struggle between affective forces, not a victory of a higher self._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters/117
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters