IB Philosophy 10.5.6 Power, Knowledge, and Moral Authority Key Definitions

Nietzsche's term for the systematic valuation of self-denial, suffering, and the renunciation of earthly life, expressed in religious, philosophical, and moral traditions that treat the body and its drives as obstacles to higher truth or goodness. He argues in the Third Essay of the Genealogy that the ascetic ideal paradoxically represents the will to power in disguise: the ascetic still imposes meaning on suffering and exercises control over existence, but does so by denying life rather than affirming it.

Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative is the supreme principle of morality, commanding unconditionally. Its first formulation requires acting only on maxims that could be willed as universal laws, and its second formulation requires treating persons always as ends in themselves, never merely as means.

For Nietzsche, herd mentality is the characteristic disposition of the masses who value comfort, security, and mediocrity above all else, elevating values suited to the weak and conformist while suppressing individual drives toward excellence and self-overcoming.

Moral anti-realism is the metaethical view that there are no objective moral facts independent of human minds, cultures, or power relations. Anti-realist positions include emotivism (moral statements express attitudes rather than facts) and error theory (all positive moral claims are false because no moral facts exist).

The power-knowledge nexus, a concept developed by Michel Foucault building on Nietzsche, holds that power and knowledge are not separate domains but mutually constitutive. Those who hold power determine what counts as legitimate knowledge, and those who control knowledge gain power over how people understand themselves and their world.