Jünger on Will for Power

"From Kant on, the philosophy of the nineteenth century assumes more and more the character of a philosophy of will. In Kantian thought we find but little preoccupation with the human will, less even than in Luther's, whose essay De servo arbitrio belongs among the fundamental writings of Protestantism. But Schopenhauer declared the human will to be "the thing as such." This identification would have  been incomprehensible to Kant, for Kant declared it impossible to understand and define the nature of things, "as such." The idea of the supremacy of the human will culminates in Nietzsche's "will for power." That power was the foremost goal of the will was claimed by Nietzsche as passionately as it was denied by Schopenhauer. The manner in which Nietzsche campaigns for his will-for-power idea reminds one of Callicles in Plato's Gorgias.

The philosophy of will has peculiar premises and consequences. It is obvious, first of all, that those older ideas of perfectibility, harmony, and balance cannot be reconciled with it. For if we start with will, everything is set in motion. Thought becomes dynamic; it is carried along by motion. But to what goal?

That sheer will has its limits must still be acknowledged. A posse ad esse non valet consequentia ("The conclusion from the possible to the actual is not valid"). Success, for instance, does not depend exclusively on will, even the greatest effort of will cannot force it. Rather, accomplished and perfect motion is distinguished by the fact that in it willed effort recedes. Great works of art, for example, always appear effortless; in an excellent painting, in a superb statue, the artistic effort and painstaking workmanship vanish in the perfection of the whole. Will and success are not identical, and therefore the will to power by itself does not accomplish anything. It may fail, it may come to ruin, and this does happen particularly when it is not consistent with the human nature from which it springs. It may lead to a mere caricature of power, to a distortion showing that little or nothing has resulted from all the willed effort. What such an exaggerated will for power achieves is like the work of a bad artist who wants to depict strength. In order to create the impression of extraordinary strength, he exaggerates all muscles and proportions except that basic proportion from which alone the power of a figure can become effortlessly manifest. The assertion of an all-present will to power remains lopsided unless the higher authority has been established, without which this will to power can be neither convincing nor successful.

Overvaluation of will in itself contains a destructive element. It implies an overestimation of movement, of direct action, of the human type which blindly follows its instincts, of the raw vitality of life. Likewise, movements enforced by sheer will tend to become themselves mechanical and unfree, because they push on towards their objectives where they are bound to fail anyway. But this dynamic thinking is by no means a sign of exuberant physical strength, nor is it a sign of a rich personality, overflowing with ideas. On the contrary, it is deeply significant that our idea of the highest power is one of divine calm, and that we associate the sublime, not with motion, but with a majesty which rules from rest. The will to power, in contrast, strives for power, because it doesn't have it. It is a poor will; that is why it is so greedy for power."

- FG Jünger