Aristotle’s ‘Being’ and Nietzsche’s ‘Will to Power’

Abstract

When Aristotle speaks of ‘wisdom’ he has in mind a searching quality which today we scarcely even recognise, let alone desire. He is the first and possibly the last to offer a distinct and satisfactory definition. This is his superior definition and he would not have offered it if it had been commonplace. ‘Wisdom’, he says in the Metaphysics, is a ‘science of first principles.’¹ Metaphysics is precisely the study of first principles, but, even so, this study obviously does not amount to wisdom. Aristotle means that while one can think about first principles well or badly, one cannot be wise without a primary yearning to uncover such principles.