So Nietzsche wrote a bunch of stuff in notebooks and even started writing a book called “The Will to Power”. He abandoned it but used a lot of the ideas in his last few works. Upon his death his anti-semitic sister arranged the notebooks and abandoned text into “The Will to Power”. Much of it is in line with stuff he published and that stuff, it is fair to say is representative of his views. But where TWTP says things Nietzsche didn’t include in his later works (which were written after the notes used to create TWTP)… it’s likely that he that he didn’t publish those ideas because he ended up not liking them for whatever reason. Plus, the editorial decisions made by his sister were made by his sister… for example Nietzsche made lots of organization outlines only one of which had “Discipline and Breeding” as a book title… that that outline was chosen in lieu of others is a result of his sister’s ideology (which Nietzsche opposed).
I doubt there is anything in there that is so far away from Nietzsche’s actual views that you aren’t equipped to talk about Nietzsche (the stuff you talk about above is certainly something he’s be down with). I can’t tell you what specifically is in TWTP that isn’t in his other books because I haven’t read it- it’s usually just something read by Nietzsche scholars.
(Looking at this comment it kind of sounds like I’m playing status games “You read the wrong book.” etc. I don’t mean that, you probably have at least as good an understanding of Nietzsche’s views as I do. Mainly I’m just recommending that you be careful about ascribing all of TWTP to Nietzsche and pointing this out so that people don’t read your comment and then go out and buy TWTP in order to understand Nietzsche. And of course, just because Nietzsche didn’t agree with everything in the book doesn’t mean what’s in there aren’t good ideas.)
But where TWTP says things Nietzsche didn’t include in his later works (which were written after the notes used to create TWTP)… it’s likely that he that he didn’t publish those ideas because he ended up not liking them for whatever reason.
There are sections of TWTP—e.g. “The Mechanical Interpretation of the World”—which cover topics simply not addressed in any of Nietzsche’s finished works. (By the way, the version of TWTP that I’m familiar with is Walter Kaufmann’s.) So all we can say is that they lack the final imprimatur of appearing in a book “author”ized by Nietzsche himself. There’s no evidence here of a change of opinion. It is at least possible that he would subsequently have disagreed with some of the thoughts anthologized in TWTP—though presumably he agreed with them at the time he wrote them.
On at least one subject—the meaning of the “eternal recurrence”—I believe TWTP shows that a lot of Nietzsche scholarship has been on the wrong track. Many interpreters have said that the eternal recurrence is a state of mind, or a metaphor, anything but a literal recurrence. But in these notes, Nietzsche shows himself to be interested in eternal recurrence as a physical hypothesis. He reasons: the universe is finite, it has a finite number of possible states, if any state was an end state it would already have ended, therefore it recurs eternally. He thinks this is the world-picture that 20th-century science will produce and endorse. And then—this is the part I think is hilarious—he thinks that lots of people will kill themselves because they can’t bear the thought of their lives being repeated infinitely often in the future cycles of time. The “superman” is supposed to be someone who finds the eternal recurrence a joyous thing, because they love their life and the whole of existence, and the eternal recurrence provides their existence with a sort of eternity that is otherwise not available in a universe of relentless flux. In this regard Nietzsche’s futurology was doubly wrong—first, that isn’t the world-picture that science produces; second, it’s only a very rare individual who would take this claim—the alleged fact of existing again in a distant future aeon—seriously enough to make it the basis for choosing life or death. But I have the same appreciation for the imagination behind this piece of Nietzschean cultural futurology, as I do for the uniquely weird worldviews that are sometimes exhibited on LW. :-)
Well, they were personal notebooks- so who knows how speculative he was being. The key thing is, this wasn’t what he was working on when he died. Published works intervened between TWTP and his death. That combined with the sheer implausibility of the metaphysics you’ve described might suggest he wasn’t that committed to the whole thing ;-). It sounds fascinating though.
He reasons: the universe is finite, it has a finite number of possible states, if any state was an end state it would already have ended, therefore it recurs eternally.
Are there any arguments for these claims? I’m fascinated by the (often very compelling!) arguments past generations had for how the physical world had to be. Aristotle is the best at this.
The Will to Power is universally regarded as not representative of Nietzsche’s views.
So what parts would he have disagreed with?
So Nietzsche wrote a bunch of stuff in notebooks and even started writing a book called “The Will to Power”. He abandoned it but used a lot of the ideas in his last few works. Upon his death his anti-semitic sister arranged the notebooks and abandoned text into “The Will to Power”. Much of it is in line with stuff he published and that stuff, it is fair to say is representative of his views. But where TWTP says things Nietzsche didn’t include in his later works (which were written after the notes used to create TWTP)… it’s likely that he that he didn’t publish those ideas because he ended up not liking them for whatever reason. Plus, the editorial decisions made by his sister were made by his sister… for example Nietzsche made lots of organization outlines only one of which had “Discipline and Breeding” as a book title… that that outline was chosen in lieu of others is a result of his sister’s ideology (which Nietzsche opposed).
I doubt there is anything in there that is so far away from Nietzsche’s actual views that you aren’t equipped to talk about Nietzsche (the stuff you talk about above is certainly something he’s be down with). I can’t tell you what specifically is in TWTP that isn’t in his other books because I haven’t read it- it’s usually just something read by Nietzsche scholars.
(Looking at this comment it kind of sounds like I’m playing status games “You read the wrong book.” etc. I don’t mean that, you probably have at least as good an understanding of Nietzsche’s views as I do. Mainly I’m just recommending that you be careful about ascribing all of TWTP to Nietzsche and pointing this out so that people don’t read your comment and then go out and buy TWTP in order to understand Nietzsche. And of course, just because Nietzsche didn’t agree with everything in the book doesn’t mean what’s in there aren’t good ideas.)
I agree with much of what you say, except
There are sections of TWTP—e.g. “The Mechanical Interpretation of the World”—which cover topics simply not addressed in any of Nietzsche’s finished works. (By the way, the version of TWTP that I’m familiar with is Walter Kaufmann’s.) So all we can say is that they lack the final imprimatur of appearing in a book “author”ized by Nietzsche himself. There’s no evidence here of a change of opinion. It is at least possible that he would subsequently have disagreed with some of the thoughts anthologized in TWTP—though presumably he agreed with them at the time he wrote them.
On at least one subject—the meaning of the “eternal recurrence”—I believe TWTP shows that a lot of Nietzsche scholarship has been on the wrong track. Many interpreters have said that the eternal recurrence is a state of mind, or a metaphor, anything but a literal recurrence. But in these notes, Nietzsche shows himself to be interested in eternal recurrence as a physical hypothesis. He reasons: the universe is finite, it has a finite number of possible states, if any state was an end state it would already have ended, therefore it recurs eternally. He thinks this is the world-picture that 20th-century science will produce and endorse. And then—this is the part I think is hilarious—he thinks that lots of people will kill themselves because they can’t bear the thought of their lives being repeated infinitely often in the future cycles of time. The “superman” is supposed to be someone who finds the eternal recurrence a joyous thing, because they love their life and the whole of existence, and the eternal recurrence provides their existence with a sort of eternity that is otherwise not available in a universe of relentless flux. In this regard Nietzsche’s futurology was doubly wrong—first, that isn’t the world-picture that science produces; second, it’s only a very rare individual who would take this claim—the alleged fact of existing again in a distant future aeon—seriously enough to make it the basis for choosing life or death. But I have the same appreciation for the imagination behind this piece of Nietzschean cultural futurology, as I do for the uniquely weird worldviews that are sometimes exhibited on LW. :-)
Well, they were personal notebooks- so who knows how speculative he was being. The key thing is, this wasn’t what he was working on when he died. Published works intervened between TWTP and his death. That combined with the sheer implausibility of the metaphysics you’ve described might suggest he wasn’t that committed to the whole thing ;-). It sounds fascinating though.
Are there any arguments for these claims? I’m fascinated by the (often very compelling!) arguments past generations had for how the physical world had to be. Aristotle is the best at this.