_(a) The Organic Process._
640.
Man imagines that he was present at the generation of the organic
world: what was there to be observed, with the eyes and the touch,
in regard to these processes? How much of it can be put into round
numbers? What rules are noticeable in the movements? Thus, man would
fain arrange all phenomena as if they were _for the eye and for the
touch,_ as if they were forms of motion: he will discover _formules_
wherewith to _simplify_ the unwieldy mass of these experiences.
_The reduction of all phenomena_ to the level of men with senses and
with mathematics. It is a matter of making _an inventory of human
experiences:_ granting that man, or rather the _human eye and the
ability to form concepts,_ have been the eternal witnesses of all
things.
641.
A plurality of forces bound by a common nutritive process we call
"Life." To this nutritive process all so-called feeling, thinking,
and imagining belong as means--that is to say, (1) in the form of
opposing other forces; (2) in the form of an adjustment of other forces
according to mould and rhythm; (3) the form of a valuation relative to
assimilation and excretion.
642.
The bond between the inorganic and the organic world must lie in the
repelling power exercised by every atom of energy. "Life" might be
defined as a lasting form of _force-establishing processes,_ in which
the various contending forces, on their part, grow unequally. To what
extent does counter-strife exist even in obedience? Individual power is
by no means surrendered through it. In the same way, there exists in
the act of commanding, an acknowledgment of the fact that the absolute
power of the adversary has not been overcome, absorbed, or dissipated.
"Obedience," and "command," are forms of the game of war.
643.
The Will to Power _interprets_ (an organ in the process of formation
has to be interpreted): it defines, it determines gradations,
differences of power. Mere differences of power could not be aware of
each other as such: something must be there which _will_ grow, and
which interprets all other things that would do the same, according to
the value of the latter. In sooth, all interpretation is but a means
in itself to become master of something. (Continual _interpretation_ is
the first principle of the organic process.)
644.
Greater complexity, sharp differentiation, the contiguity of the
developed organs and functions, with the disappearance of intermediate
members--if _that_ is _perfection,_ then there is a Will to Power
apparent in the organic process by means of whose _dominating,
shaping,_ and _commanding_ forces it is continually increasing the
sphere of its power, and persistently simplifying things within that
sphere, it _grows_ imperatively.
"Spirit" is only a means and an instrument in the service of higher
life, in the service of the elevation of life.
645.
"_Heredity,_" as something quite incomprehensible, cannot be used
as an explanation, but only as a designation for the identification
of a problem. And the same holds good of "_adaptability._" As a
matter of fact, the account of morphology, even supposing it were
perfect, _explains_ nothing, it merely describes an enormous fact.
_How_ a given organ gets to be used for any particular purpose is not
explained. There is just as little explained in regard to these things
by the assumption of _causæ finales_ as by the assumption of _causæ
efficientes._ The concept "causa" is only a means of expression, no
_more_; a means of designating a thing.
646.
They are analogies; for instance, our _memory_ may suggest another kind
of memory which makes itself felt in heredity, development, and forms.
Our _inventive_ and experimentative powers suggest another kind of
inventiveness in the application of instruments to new ends, etc.
That which we call our "_consciousness_" is quite guiltless of any
of the essential processes of our preservation and growth; and no
human brain could be so subtle as to construct anything more than a
machine--to which every organic process is infinitely superior.
647.
_Against Darwinism._--The use of an organ does _not_ explain its
origin, on the contrary! During the greater part of the time occupied
in the formation of a certain quality, this quality does not help to
preserve the individual; it is of no use to him, and particularly not
in his struggle with external circumstances and foes.
What is ultimately "useful"? It is necessary to ask, "Useful for what"?
For instance, that which promotes the _lasting powers_ of the
individual might be unfavourable to his strength or his beauty; that
which preserves him might at the same time fix him and keep him stable
throughout development. On the other hand, a _deficiency,_ a state of
_degeneration,_ may be of the greatest possible use, inasmuch as it
acts as a stimulus to other organs. In the same way, a _state of need_
may be a condition of existence, inasmuch as it reduces an individual
to that modicum of means which, though it _keeps him together,_ does
not allow him to squander his strength.--The individual himself is
the struggle of parts (for nourishment, space, etc.): his development
involves the _triumph,_ the _predominance,_ of isolated parts; the
_wasting away,_ or the "development into organs," of other parts.
The influence of "environment" is nonsensically _overrated_ in Darwin,
the essential factor in the process of life is precisely the tremendous
inner power to shape and to create forms, which merely _uses, exploits_
"environment."
The new forms built up by this inner power are not produced with a view
to any end; but, in the struggle between the parts, a new form does not
exist long _without_ becoming related to some kind of semi-utility,
and, according to its use, develops itself ever more and more perfectly.
648.
"Utility" in respect of the acceleration of the speed of evolution, is
a different kind of "utility" from that which is understood to mean the
greatest possible stability and staying power of the evolved creature.
649.
"Useful" in the sense of Darwinian biology means: that which favours a
thing in its struggle with others. But in my opinion the _feeling of
being surcharged,_ the feeling accompanying an _increase in strength,_
quite apart from the utility of the struggle, is the actual _progress_:
from these feelings the will to war is first derived.
650.
Physiologists should bethink themselves before putting down the
instinct of self-preservation as the cardinal instinct of an organic
being. A living thing seeks above all to _discharge_ its strength:
"_self-preservation" _ is only one of the results thereof.--Let us
beware of _superfluous_ teleological principles!--one of which is the
whole concept of "self-preservation."[4]
[Footnote 4: See _Beyond Good and Evil,_ in this edition, Aph. 13.]
651.
The most-fundamental--and most primeval activity of a protoplasm cannot
be ascribed to a will to self-preservation, for it absorbs an amount
of material which is absurdly out of proportion with the needs of its
preservation: and what is more, it does _not_ "preserve itself" in the
process, but actually falls to _pieces...._ The instinct which rules
here, must account for this total absence in the organism of a desire
to preserve itself: hunger is already an interpretation based upon the
observation of a more or less complex organism (hunger is a specialised
and later form of the instinct; it is an expression of the system of
divided labour, in the service of a higher instinct which rules the
whole).
652.
It is just as impossible to regard _hunger_ as the _primum mobile,_ as
it is to take self-preservation to be so. Hunger, considered as the
result of insufficient nourishment, means hunger as the result of a
will to power _which can no longer dominate_ It is not a question of
replacing a loss, it is only later on, as the result of the division of
labour, when the Will to Power has discovered other and quite different
ways of gratifying itself, that the appropriating lust of the organism
is _reduced_ to hunger--to the need of replacing what has been lost.
653.
We can but laugh at the false "_Altruism_" of biologists: propagation
among the amœbæ appears as a process of jetsam, as an advantage to
them. It is an excretion of useless matter.
654.
The division of a protoplasm into two takes place when its power is
no longer sufficient to subjugate the matter it has appropriated:
procreation is the result of impotence.
In the cases in which the males seek the females and become one with
them, procreation is the result of hunger.
655.
The weaker vessel is driven to the stronger from a need of nourishment;
it desires to get under it, if possible to become _one_ with it. The
stronger, on the contrary, defends itself from others; it refuses to
perish in this way; it prefers rather to split itself into two or more
parts in the process of growing. One may conclude that the greater the
urgency seems to become one with something else, the more weakness in
some form is present. The greater the tendency to variety, difference,
inner decay, the more strength is actually to hand.
The instinct to cleave to something, and the instinct to repel
something, are in the inorganic as in the organic world, the uniting
bond. The whole distinction is a piece of hasty judgment.
The will to power in every combination of forces, _defending itself
against the stronger and coming down unmercifully upon the weaker, is
more correct._