People seem to find some sort of "meaning" in Nietzsche. My question is, more specifically, can someone's "will to power" make their life meaningful, according to him? Does Nietzsche address anywhere what a "meaningful life" is?
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will to meaning only contrasted with freud and adler i think @Conifold ?– anonMar 29, 2017 at 23:33
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@Conifold i really do appreciate the tone, but the question bullet pointed is very clear, i thought, and not answered in the wikipedia article.– anonMar 29, 2017 at 23:38
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@Conifold ok I'll edit the question to be ask just one question. Strange that you think it non specific, as I assumed most people have pre philosophical idea of what a meaningful life is– anonMar 29, 2017 at 23:56
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1I edited the question to make it more on point, you can roll back the edit if it does not meet your wishes. IEP has an article on what various philosophers thought about the "meaning of life", including Schopenhauer and Nietzsche:"It is a measure of the degree of strength of will to what extent one can do without meaning in things, to what extent one can endure to live in a meaningless world because one organizes a small portion of it oneself" (The Will to Power).– ConifoldMar 30, 2017 at 0:13
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@Conifold which doesn't quite answer the question -- unless we think that enduring a meaningless world is demonstratively either meaningful or meaningless. as implied, i don't– anonMar 30, 2017 at 0:53
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1 Answer
Further to Conifold's excellent Nietsche quote:
"It is a measure of the degree of strength of will to what extent one can do without meaning in things, to what extent one can endure to live in a meaningless world because one organizes a small portion of it oneself" (The Will to Power)
It is in organising that small portion of the world, by power of will - both unconscious and deliberate - that meaning is created.
answered Mar 30, 2017 at 13:30
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would accept the answer for sure if you had a reference for the last sentence?– anonMar 30, 2017 at 16:55
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Just pointing out a fact most English readers of Nietzsche are not familiar with: The Will to Power is not authorised by Nietzsche. It is a book published by Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche together with Heinrich Köselitz. There are sentences altered, added and put together in a way never intended by Nietzsche himself. E.g. in German and Italian there are critical editions accounting for that.– Philip Klöcking ♦Jun 1, 2017 at 23:43
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