How to De-Nazify Nietzsche's
Philosophical Anthropology?
Jacob Golomb
Most Nazi readings of Nietzsche's thought justify their acts of misappropriation by referring to his key notion of the will to power in terms of a violent, overpowering, and physical force, which, if used effectively and efficiently, will secure a convincing military victory and material conquest.1
Ironically, the first to interpret the will to power in terms of military imperialism was Max Nordau, a leading cultural critic and subsequently Herzl's most important convert to political Zionism, who passionately warned his readers against this “degenerate” thinker whose influence was likely to bring havoc to the cause of “enlightened” and progressive European culture.2
This essay, in tune with Nietzsche's philosophical anthropology as delineated in his published writings, will draw some fundamental distinctions between two of his central notions—those of Kraft against Macht. It will also introduce the main psychological typology delineated in his major writings between what I will henceforth refer to as “positive” versus “negative” power patterns. Consequently it will become clear that what Nazis referred to when using the so-called Nietzschean idea of a military and physical Macht was actually what Nietzsche understood to be Kraft and Gewalt. Moreover, even within the conceptual domain of Macht, it will become apparent that its violent and aggressive manifestations were confined by him, in most cases, to the behavioral patterns of persons who suffered from and expressed the psychological phenomenon of “negative” power. By the end of this essay it
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