Walking the Tightrope

Even though, in my opinion, the Ubermensch and self-overcoming take center stage in Zarathustra , R. J. Hollingdale stresses the underlying importance of will to power and eternal recurrence throughout the work. “Between The Gay Science and Thus Spoke Zarathustra Nietzsche arrived at the hypothesis that all actions are motivated by the desire for power. Employing Schopenhauer's terminology he called this principle the 'will to power', and by means of it he now tried to give a picture of a possible reality deprived of all metaphysical support. “The will to power is introduced in the chapter called 'Of the Thousand and One Goals' : hitherto there have been many peoples, consequently many 'goals' - i.e. moralities; the reason each people has had its own morality is that morality is will to power - not only power over others but more essentially power over oneself.” ( Hollingdale , page 158) This is echoed by Walter Kaufmann : “Nietzsche first speaks of t...