Single Idea 4554

[catalogued under 20. Action / B. Preliminaries of Action / 2. Willed Action / a. Will to Act]

Full Idea

There is no such thing as 'will'; it is only a simplifying conception of understanding, as is 'matter'.

Gist of Idea

The concept of the 'will' is just a false simplification by our understanding

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §671)

Book Reference

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Will to Power', ed/tr. Kaufmann,W /Hollingdate,R [Vintage 1968], p.354


A Reaction

Nietzsche shares this view with British philosophers such as Hobbes and Bernard Williams. So what is the ontological status of the 'will to power'?