will to power

is a broad will stretching beyond the limits of the body in which 'life' is only one of its special cases.

is a necessary feature in all life. Where I found a living creature, there I found the will to power.

Where I found a living creature, there I found the will to power' (Za II: 'On Self-Overcoming').

is a struggle for independence and dominance over other wills.

All wills struggle for domination, independence, and power over one another, which is the source of change in the universe. This change is thus effected by what Nietzsche calls the 'will to power,' the struggle for independence and dominance over other wills. (nietzsche spark beyond )

is also in dead matter but it is lacks organization and cohesion.

he suggests that the will to power isn't present only in living things, but can also be found in dead matter. Rocks and water simply lack the organization and cohesion of a human body, and so lack a focused will to power, but even there the will to power is operating.' (SparkBeyond)

is composed on the one hand of 'will' which concerns an agent, and on the other, 'power' which belongs to life, the cosmos, force itself.

The will merely concerns the agent. Power, which belongs to life, to the cosmos which represents a degree of accumulated and accumulating force produces the agent, in accordance with its rises and falls. Thus wherever there would be a will to power, the agent would be sick or healthy: if it is sick, it succumbs to the impulse... if it is healthy, it succumbs to its over-ftrllness,but all the same it succumbs to the movement of a power that it confuses with its own will. One's resistance to the invading and uncontrolled forces is only a question of interpretation and is always the result of an arbitrary decision.(Klossowski 'vicious' 88)

is larger than the 'will to life', exemplified by the martyr who says 'you can kill me, you can do anything to my body, but you cannot touch my principles because I am powerful enough to resist all your threats'.

Nietzsche suggests that the will to power is the fundamental drive that motivates all things. This suggestion might contrast with the suggestion that our fundamental drive is the will to life... that is, the suggestion that above all we pursue self-preservation. There are a number of reasons for seeing power as more important to us than life. For instance, the martyr who is willing to die for a cause is essentially saying 'you can kill me, you can do anything to my body, but you cannot touch my principles because I am powerful enough to resist all your threats.' This martyr clearly values that power of independence more than life itself' (spark genealogy)

is not a matter of simply satisfying one's wishes, as such can be mere luck or happenstance. Rather, the will to power can manifest itself only against resistances... therefore it seeks that which resist it.

An agent's wil to power counts as satisfied only if he has an experience of effective agency. The mere satisfaction of determinate needs or wishes cannot suffice to elicit this experience, becuse it might not necessarily be a consequence of his effective agency, but could just as well be the product of luck or of an accomodating environment. Hence, it is only when the environment resist his will, and he manages to overcome this resistnace, that he can eperience a feelign of power or effective agency: 'the will to power can manifest itself only against resistances... therefore it seeks that which resist it' (WP 656... cf. 696).

is not exercised mysteriously on muscles or nerves, still less on 'matter in general'. It is necessarily exercised on another will.

The will (will to power) is the differential element of force. A new conception of the philosophy of the will follows form this. for the will is not exercised mysteriously on muscles or nerves, still less on 'matter in general', but is necessarily exercised on another will'

will to power, n.Definitions

will to power