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stankovic, sasa thesis.pdf - Atrium - University of Guelph

stankovic, sasa thesis.pdf - Atrium - University of Guelph

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What creates values is not so much the extent to which I affirm my own difference but<br />

rather the extent to which affirming my own difference also names the extent to which I am<br />

affected. “Evaluations, in essence, are not values but ways <strong>of</strong> being, modes <strong>of</strong> existence <strong>of</strong> those<br />

who judge and evaluate, serving as principles or the values on the basis <strong>of</strong> which they<br />

judge…This is the crucial point; high and low, noble and base, are not values but represent the<br />

differential element from which the value <strong>of</strong> values themselves derives” (NP 1-2). To affirm<br />

one’s own difference, to become, just means to be well affected, in other words, it means to feel<br />

good. To deny one’s own difference, not to become, just means to be badly affected, in other<br />

words, it means to feel bad. The will to power creates values as affect. In other words, the good<br />

and the bad are values that originate in the will to power as affect. In “Deleuze and Derrida,<br />

Immanence and Transcendence” Daniel W. Smith writes that “for Deleuze, ethics is ontology<br />

because it is derived from the immanent relation <strong>of</strong> beings to Being at the level <strong>of</strong> their existence<br />

(and hence privileges concepts such as puissance (power or capacity) and affectivity)” (Smith<br />

2003 63). Deleuze argues that the will to power is singular. “We should not ask whether, in the<br />

final analysis, the will to power is unitary or multiple – this would show a general<br />

misunderstanding <strong>of</strong> Nietzsche’s philosophy. The will to power is plastic, inseparable from each<br />

case in which it is determined” (NP 85). For this reason, the will to power as affect actually<br />

creates the values <strong>of</strong> good and bad that are always singular. We must be clear on this point. The<br />

will to power does not create values arbitrarily. It is not the case that we simply say that<br />

affirming one’s own difference is good and denying one’s own difference is bad. We also give a<br />

reason for this distinction. However, this reason is not external to the singular will to power<br />

itself. Rather, it is internal to it. Therefore, affirming one’s own difference is good because it<br />

feels good. And denying one’s own difference is bad because it feels bad. Again, this feeling is<br />

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