Nietzsche on Rights, Power and the Feeling of Power

In Daybreak 112, ‘On the natural history of duties and rights’, Nietzsche outlines a novel answer to the question how rights and duties come about. At first glance it may appear shocking to liberal ears, accustomed to thinking of rights as limits to the power of others over individuals and groups, to hear rights described as ‘recognised and guaranteed degrees of power’. However, once we take into account Nietzsche’s particular sense of the term ‘power’ and realise that he uses this term and its cognates to describe specifically human capacities for action, the thesis becomes much less shocking. Nietzsche’s account of rights and duties is interesting for at least two reasons. First, I believe that it provides a conceptual framework for a naturalistic and historical understanding of rights as entirely embedded within particular cultural contexts. I will take up this claim briefly at the end of this paper.