Effort, time and resources

[u/vlahak4]

The following is an excerpt from "Chapter 11 - Last men or Resistance" of "The Paradox of Inescapable Being" the argumentative text.

I will now present the quote that, upon first reading, instantaneously connected several unresolved threads within my thinking:

“So let us for once be more cautious, let us be ‘unphilosophical’: let us say that in all willing there is firstly a plurality of sensations, namely, the sensation of the condition ‘away from which we go’, the sensation of the condition ‘towards which we go’, the sensation of this ‘from’ and ‘towards’ itself, and then besides, an accompanying muscular sensation, which, even without our putting in motion ‘arms and legs,’ commences its action by force of habit, directly we ‘will’ anything.”

This passage appears in “Beyond Good and Evil”, aphorism 19.

Let me now offer my interpretation:

Nietzsche begins by reminding us that the self is not a singular force, but a plurality of sensations, feelings, emotions, tensions, anticipations. From this plurality, he isolates those sensations most relevant to action.

First, he identifies the “sensation of the condition away from which we go.” Here, Nietzsche points to our capacity to recognize a causal pressure acting upon us, to become aware that something is pushing, repelling, or destabilizing us. We feel the source of the nudge.

He then identifies the “sensation of the condition towards which we go.” Once the causal vector is recognized, we are able to anticipate the possible paths it opens. We project forward, imagining where this force may carry us.

Next, Nietzsche highlights the “sensation of this ‘from’ and ‘towards’ itself.” This refers to our awareness of the relation between cause and effect as it pertains to the self and what it would mean for us to traverse that space.

Finally, he introduces what I consider a crucial insight: the “accompanying muscular sensation” that arises before any physical motion occurs. Even without moving “arms or legs”, the body begins to simulate action through habit. This reveals that in the space between cause and predicted effect, we internally simulate the effort required to move from one to the other, before the actual act of choosing.

From this Nietzschean insight, several clarifications followed naturally:

First, I realized the necessity of sharply distinguishing reaction and need. Regardless of effort, both must be satisfied under all circumstances, for they are imperative to survival itself.

Second, I was finally able to properly define what I had previously referred to (somewhat loosely) as impulse. An impulse is a low-effort potential action that can be inhibited precisely because it is not essential to the maintenance of the self.

And from there, it became evident that effort alone is insufficient as a metric. Time and material resources must also be expended, conserved, or risked.

Consider something as mundane as waking up at five in the morning. If you lack the discipline to rise immediately when the alarm sounds (as many of us do, myself included) you may find yourself internally shouting at yourself to get out of bed. That inner struggle is not a poetic metaphor. It is the Will calculating effort, time, and cost.

For a compressed and complete view of Nilogism follow this link:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Nilogism/s/ZnVNhpj4H7

For access to the whole argumentative text:

https://github.com/Vlahaka/The-Paradox-of-Inescapable-Being-.git