11. Nietzsche's Will to Power and a new Hierarchy of Needs
Description
In this episode of Becoming Übermensch, we plunge deeper into Nietzsche’s concept of will to power as the underlying principle of life, reinterpreting Maslow’s hierarchy of needs through this radical lens. We explore how all living organisms—plants, animals, and humans—express a form of power not through conscious intention, but through their very being itself. Human consciousness, Nietzsche argues, is simply the latest elaboration of a deeper, inexorable, evolved, physiological will.
This episode introduces a brand new Nietzschean model of human motivation:
1.Maintain Power – preserve the power you already have.
2.Accumulate Power – expand your capabilities, enhance your status, and amass resources.
3.Express Power – invest your power, revel in it, and discharge excess through creation, confrontation, and transformation.
From animal instincts to the most refined expressions of human culture; from dance, to drugs, to brute dominance, to philosophy itself, this show unpacks will to power as the hidden engine of everything we do. Provocative, and unsparing—we go beyond Maslow to uncover the real fundamental drivers of life.
Episode music choice: New Noise by Refused
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Here's a Spotify playlist of the tracks I recommend in series 1 of the Will to Joy podcast in the order I recommend them. Each invokes some variety of Dionysian feeling for me. I hope they can do something similar for you:
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