ABSTRACT
Concentric space as a structure of inclusion appears to be anathema to the later Nietzschean extolling of the will to power as something higher than any reconciliation. This chapter argues that Nietzsche repeatedly illustrates the operation of will to power in spatial-structural terms as diametric space, with regard to a) diametric spatial features of splitting and, most prominently, b) mirror image reversal including inversions as power hierarchy and c) closure including repetitive rituals, seeped also into the Dionysian myth in ancient Greece. Nietzsche diverts and displaces one set of diametric oppositions – good–evil – into another network of diametric spatial relations – master–slave morality, noble–base. Heidegger highlights the inverted Platonism of Nietzsche’s priority for the sensuous realm. However, it is the above–below distinction resting on a diametric spatial precondition that needs overcoming to directly challenge Platonic metaphysics. Nietzsche’s will to power is not a mere replacing of the will to life but rather a turning of it, a shift in direction that modifies it; the life principle is affected by and embedded interactively in this diametric spatial turning process of reversal. Will to power is examined as a spatial-phenomenological principle affecting human experience, and a wider cosmological system principle beyond simple human subjectivity. Key words: will to power, destruction, Dionysus, inversion, slave morality, life principle
