%0 Journal Article
%T Power ¡Ù Power: Against the Mix
%A Jan Rehmann
%J Critical Sociology
%@ 1569-1632
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0896920516683233
%X The reception of Nietzsche¡¯s philosophy is still predominated by a widespread ¡°hermeneutics of innocence¡± (Losurdo) that dissimulates Nietzsche¡¯s elitist perspectives. This article challenges a core element of this hermeneutics, the conflation of Spinoza and Nietzsche. The assumption of a continuity of their power concepts overlooks that the late Nietzsche took a sharp anti-Spinozian turn and introduced his ¡°will to power¡± against Spinoza¡¯s ¡°conatus.¡± Whereas Spinoza¡¯s potentia agendi designates a collective and cooperative capacity to act, which can be reconceptualized with the help of Gramsci¡¯s theory of hegemony, Nietzsche¡¯s ¡°will to power¡± naturalizes the principle of domination. An ethics inspired by Nietzsche can never get rid of its inherent ¡°pathos of distance,¡± which manifests itself even in its most ¡°leftist¡± forms as a celebration of social distinctions against ordinary people. Recourse to Spinoza can help redefine life affirmation in a democratic-socialist way and thus provides an ethics for a hegemony from below
%K elitism
%K ethics
%K hegemony
%K hermeneutics of innocence
%K ideology
%K life affirmation
%K poststructuralism
%K power
%K self-preservation
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0896920516683233