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Philosophy vocabulary · Key Thinkers' Concepts

Will to power

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In philosophy, will to power means: Nietzsche's idea that a basic drive of living things is to grow, overcome resistance and express their strength, not merely to survive or seek pleasure.

In Turkish: güç istenci, güç iradesi

How it is used

A translation of the German Wille zur Macht. It does not simply mean a desire to dominate others; it includes self-overcoming and creativity. The book called The Will to Power was compiled from Nietzsche's notes after his death and should be used with care.

Example sentences

  1. Nietzsche treats the will to power as more basic than the drive for self-preservation.

  2. Reading the will to power as a simple love of violence misses Nietzsche's point.

Common collocations

  • Nietzsche's will to power
  • self-overcoming
  • master and slave morality
  • revaluation of values
  • nihilismThe view that life has no meaning, value or purpose, or more narrowly that there are no moral truths or no knowledge at all.
  • existentialismA philosophical movement centered on individual existence, freedom and choice, holding that people create meaning through how they live rather than finding it ready-made.
  • moralityThe principles about right and wrong behavior that people or societies accept, or the quality of an action being morally right or wrong.
  • continental philosophyA loose label for mainly French and German traditions since Kant and Hegel, including phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, critical theory and post-structuralism.

More terms: Key Thinkers' Concepts

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