# Chapter 19 explained — Beyond Good and Evil

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

## What happens

Nietzsche deconstructs the concept of the will, arguing it is not a simple unity but a complex phenomenon of commanding and obeying within the individual's internal 'social structure.' He critiques Schopenhauer's view, analyzes the sensations, thoughts, and emotions involved in willing, and redefines 'freedom of will' as the feeling of power experienced by the commanding part of the self.

## Themes in this chapter

### Psychology as the Fundamental Science

The chapter is a prime exercise in Nietzsche's psychological method, dissecting the 'will' into constituent sensations, thoughts, and the emotion of command to reveal its true nature.

### Life as Exploitation

Willing is framed as a relation of supremacy and obedience within the internal 'social structure' of the self, extending the concept of exploitation and command to the most fundamental psychic act.

## Character check-ins

### Arthur Schopenhauer

Critiqued for adopting the popular prejudice that the will is the best-known, simple entity. His view is presented as an example of philosophers' uncritical exaggeration.

### The Narrator

Acts as the philosophical critic and psychologist, dissecting the will and proposing a new, complex model based on internal power relations.

## Key lines

> Willing seems to me to be above all something complicated, something that is a unity only in name...

The will is not a simple, singular faculty but a complex aggregation of different elements that we mistakenly label as one thing.

_Core argument against philosophical simplification._

> "Freedom of Will"—that is the expression for the complex state of delight of the person exercising volition, who commands and at the same time identifies himself with the executor of the order...

The feeling of free will is the pleasurable sensation of power experienced by the commanding part of the self when it successfully identifies with the obedient part that carries out the action.

_Redefinition of a key philosophical term as a psychological feeling of power._

> L’effet c’est moi : what happens here is what happens in every well-constructed and happy commonwealth, namely, that the governing class identifies itself with the successes of the commonwealth.

The internal ruler (the commanding will) says 'I am the effect,' just as a ruling class takes credit for the state's successes, illustrating the internal political structure of the self.

_Analogy between the psychology of the individual and the politics of the state._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters/19
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters