Beyond Good and Evil · Chapter
36 explained
The chapter argues that the only reality 'given' to us is our world of desires and passions.
What happens
The chapter argues that the only reality 'given' to us is our world of desires and passions. It proposes a monistic method: to explain all phenomena, including the mechanical world, as manifestations of a single causality—the will, specifically the Will to Power. It hypothesizes that all organic functions and forces can be traced back to this fundamental drive, defining the world from within as 'Will to Power, and nothing else.'
Themes in this chapter
Will to Power
Posited as the fundamental form of will, the 'intelligible character' of the world, and the singular causality from which all organic functions and active force derive.
Psychology as the Fundamental Science
The argument begins from the psychological reality of 'our world of desires and passions' as the only given reality, using it as the foundation for understanding all other phenomena, including the mechanical world.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Presents the argument for a monistic causality based on will and introduces the thesis of the Will to Power as the fundamental reality.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
Referenced indirectly as part of a philosophical tradition (the 'Schopenhauerian sense') whose view of the world as 'representation' is contrasted with the narrator's more realist view of will.
Key passages
“Supposing that nothing else is 'given' as real but our world of desires and passions... are we not permitted to make the attempt and to ask the question whether this which is 'given' does not suffice... for the understanding even of the so-called mechanical (or 'material') world?”
If our inner world of impulses is our only certain reality, can we use it to explain the physical world?
Establishes the methodological starting point.
“Not to assume several kinds of causality, so long as the attempt to get along with a single one has not been pushed to its furthest extent... that is a morality of method.”
The logical and moral imperative is to exhaust the explanatory power of a single cause before introducing others.
States the principle of methodological monism.
“The question is ultimately whether we really recognize the will as operating... we must make the attempt to posit hypothetically the causality of the will as the only causality.”
If we believe in the causality of will, we are compelled to test it as the sole form of causality.
Makes the case for a will-based monism.
“Granted, finally, that we succeeded in explaining our entire instinctive life as the development and ramification of one fundamental form of will—namely, the Will to Power... one would thus have acquired the right to define all active force unequivocally as Will to Power.”
If all instinct and organic function can be traced to the Will to Power, then all force is Will to Power.
Presents the Will to Power as the unifying hypothesis.
“The world seen from within... it would simply be 'Will to Power,' and nothing else.”
The intrinsic nature of reality is nothing but Will to Power.
The concluding, definitive metaphysical claim.