This chapter argues that Nietzsche's conception of will to power underlies his explanations of moral values, and that its manifestations may be outward-directed or inward-directed, achieve genuine power or the feeling of power, and result in healthy or unhealthy states. In Genealogy II Nietzsche presents his historiographical principle concerning interpretation and origin, in which he implicates will to power: all interpretation is one thing exerting power over another, and Nietzsche blurs distinctions between natural and intentional explanation. The notion that the natural world is will to power is then discussed. Nietzsche does not propound a metaphysics of the world as thing in itself, but does explain all natural processes in terms of relations of dominance, in the human case the interaction of sub-personal drives or ‘under-wills’. Maudemarie Clark's reading of ‘the world as will to power’ as a projection of Nietzsche's values rather than a genuine assertion is examined and rejected.
Keywords: Clark, drives, explanation, interpretation, nature, thing in itself, will to power