To: NIETZSCHE-AT-dartmouth.edu
Subject: Eternal Return as scientific doctrine


E:

My understanding of Nietzsche's take on instincts is that while all instincts
can indeed be attributed to the discharge of "power", there is nothing
inherenly "determined" in the process except the process of power discharge
itself.  All behaviors are capable of "becoming instinctual". 

In "The Gay Science" N. lists a huge number of "instincts" and
"mini-instincts" which develop in accordance with the specific situations
that an organism finds itself in.  "...the task of incorporating knowledge
and making it instinctive is only beginning to dawn on the human eye...so far
we have incorporated only our errors and that all our consciousness relates
to errors.(pg 85, aphorism 11). (Also, see pg. 73, aphorism 1, pg 73,
aphorism 21, pg. 93, aphorism 347, pg 288 among many other references to a
variety of instincts.) This seems to suggest, to me, that what N. terms
"instincts" are in no way necessary expressions, or biologically determined
behaviors.  If the human organism was placed in different circumstances, he
would develop different instincts.

Nietzsche was certainly aware of the huge diversity of behaviors and customs
in the world, some of which he thought were life affirming (those that
promoted the expression or discharge of power) and some which he thought were
life deying (those that inhibited the expression or discharge of power).  The
"instincts" adopted by people or peoples were symptomatic of their relative
strength or weakness, by which I think was meant the amount of "power" that
an organism was naturally endowed with.  If in saying that instincts are
 "biologically determined" you mean that they stem from a common source in
that they are expressions of "power", I would agree.  Everything that
exhibits a behavior is expressing its "will to power".  However, if you mean
that the form of expression, or the "symptom", is "biologically determined",
I would disagree.  There are an infinite number of ways to express one's
power, and they accomplish the same ends more or less efficiently.

John M.





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