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Single Idea 24105

[filed under theme 20. Action / B. Preliminaries of Action / 2. Willed Action / a. Will to Act ]

Full Idea

'Drive' is only a translation from the language of nonfeeling into the language of feeling. 'Will' is what is communicated to our feelings as a result of that process - in other words an effect, and not the beginning and cause.

Gist of Idea

Drives make us feel non-feelings; Will is the effect of those feelings

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1882-84 [1883], 7[025])

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Fragments from the period of 'Zarathustra' (v 14)', ed/tr. Loeb/Tinsley [Stanford 2019], p.224

A Reaction

This shows the link between his central idea of 'drives' in psychology, and the actions that result. Effectively this makes all our actions arise from the unconscious. Intention and choice are effectively epiphenomena.

Related Idea

Idea 23191 Minds have an excluding drive to scare things off, and a selecting one to filter facts [Nietzsche]

The 28 ideas from 'Unpublished Notebooks 1882-84'

24096 Unlike time, space is subjective. Empty space was assumed, but it doesn't exist [Nietzsche]
24115 There is no proof that we forget things - only that we can't recall [Nietzsche]
24116 Justice says people are not equal, and should become increasingly unequal [Nietzsche]
24117 We need lower and higher drives, but they must be under firm control [Nietzsche]
24118 Do away with punishment. Counter-retribution is as bad as the crime [Nietzsche]
24119 The eternal return of wastefulness is a terrible thought [Nietzsche]
24120 Great orators lead their arguments, rather than following them [Nietzsche]
24122 Life is forces conjoined by nutrition, to produce resistance, arrangement and value [Nietzsche]
24123 My eternal recurrence is opposed to feeling fragmented and imperfect [Nietzsche]
24097 The pragmatics of language is more comprehensible than the meaning [Nietzsche]
24098 Reasons that justify punishment can also justify the crime [Nietzsche]
24121 Greeks might see modern analysis of what is human as impious [Nietzsche]
24099 We contain many minds, which fight for the 'I' of the mind [Nietzsche]
24100 If you don't want war, remove your borders; but you set up borders because you want war [Nietzsche]
24101 We always assign values, but we may not value those values [Nietzsche]
24102 Thoughts are signs (just as words are) [Nietzsche]
24103 You should not want too many virtues; one is enough [Nietzsche]
24104 We don't create logic, time and space! The mind obeys laws because they are true [Nietzsche]
24105 Drives make us feel non-feelings; Will is the effect of those feelings [Nietzsche]
24106 Talk of 'utility' presupposes that what is useful to people has been defined [Nietzsche]
24107 Once a drive controls the intellect, it rules, and sets the goals [Nietzsche]
24108 Actions are just a release of force. They seize on something, which becomes the purpose [Nietzsche]
24109 Actual morality is more complicated and subtle than theory (which gets paralysed) [Nietzsche]
24110 Some things we would never do, even for the highest ideals [Nietzsche]
24111 Happiness is the active equilibrium of our drives [Nietzsche]
24112 To think about being we must have an opinion about what it is [Nietzsche]
24113 Our motives don't explain our actions [Nietzsche]
24114 The pain in truth is when it destroys a belief [Nietzsche]