Natural Selection or Will Power: How to Interpret the Process of Creative Destruction?

André Lapied and Sophie Swaton

Table of Contents

Abstract

The difficult connection between Nietzsche’s philosophy and economics has only been very recently examined. This essay examines (a) the introduction of Nietzsche’s particular meaning of “creative destruction” in economics and (b) the philosophical justification of this notion. In so doing, the paper evaluates the conflicting evolutionist and Nietzschean interpretations of “creative destruction.” It is difficult to reconcile these two metaphors in order to demonstrate that the will for power offers a better interpretation of the “creative destruction” mechanism than does the fight for life.

Keywords

  • creative destruction mechanism
  • evolutionary theories
  • Nietzsche
  • will to power