The Discovery of the Will in Nineteenth-Century German Thought

Anthony K. Jensen's latest monograph succeeds in establishing a new tradition of nineteenth-century German philosophy that centres on the concept of ‘Will'. Stretching from Goethe to Nietzsche, this tradition did not conceive of Will in either the Platonist, Christian, or Kantian sense. Rather, it posited the existence of an overwhelmingly unconscious and uncontrollable entity, conceived as competitive striving, that represented not only the character of the self but also of the whole of reality. In the following, we argue that Jensen's study should be regarded as a major event in the history of philosophical scholarship on account of both its foregrounding of an array of neglected but important thinkers and its innovative reinterpretation of others much more well-known. Above all, the book stands out as a compelling attempt to reconcile an analytical with an intellectual historical approach to the study of nineteenth-century German philosophy. At the same time, we draw attention to the limits of Jensen's study, whilst also challenging some of its interpretations. We focus on Nietzsche's concept of the Will to Power, calling into question Jensen's reading of its epistemological underpinnings and the overlooking of its political implications with regard to both Nietzsche’s own political philosophy and its reception in the twentieth century and beyond.