GREG WHITLOCK

ROGER BOSCOVICH, BENEDICT DE SPINOZA AND

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE: THE UNTOLD STORY

/. Introduction
/
The influence ofRoger Joseph Boscovich1 on the development of Friedrich
Nietzsche's thought, beglrining in 1872 and ending only with the 1889 eclipse,
1
Roger Joseph Boscovich (Rudjer Josef Boskovic) was botn on September 18, 1711, in Ragusan,
Dalmatia, to a large Catholic family. He was educated by the Jesuits, and he later taught in Jesuit
schools frorn 1733 to 1738. He became a professor of mathematics at Collegium Romanum at
the age of twenty-nine. And then in 1744 he entered the Jesuit priesthood.
Branislav Petronievic, professor of philosophy at University of Beigrade, writes that Bos-
covich was at once philosopher, astronomer, physicist, mathematician, historian, engineer, archi-
tect and poet. In addition he was a diplomat and a man of the world; and yet a good Catholic
and a devoted member of the Jesuit order." He finished bis principal work, Theoria Philosophie
Naturalis Redacta ad Unicam Legern \/irium in Natttra Existentium (A Theory of Närural Philosophy
Reduced to a Single Law of the Actions Existing in Nature), in Vienna in 1758, issuing a
definitive edition in Latin under the author's supervision in 1763.
Throughout bis life, Roger Joseph Boscovich was called upon by the Church for a long
series of technical, engineering and scientific tasks: measürement of an arc of the meridian
(1750), examination of the Imperial Library at Vienna and the cupola of the cathedral at Milan
(1756), construction of the Brera Observatory (1764).
Boscovich's scientific accomplishments äre extensive. He is credited iii New Encyclopedia
Bntannica äs "the astronomer and mathematician who gave the first geometric procedure for
determining the equator of a rotating planet from three observances of a surface feäture and
for Computing the orbit of a planet from three observances of its position." He was also "one
of the first scientists of continental Europe to accept Newton's gravitational theory [...]" and
was "a piöneer of geodesy, the science concerned with the size and shape of the earth ·[...]."
J. M. Child lists more of Boscovich's accomplishments: "In astronomical science, he speaks
of the use of a telescope filled with liquid for the purpose of measuring the aberration of light:
he invented a prismatic micrometer contemporaneously with Rochon and Mäskelyne. [...] In
what was then the subsidiary science of optics, he invented a prism with a variable angle for
measuring the refraction and dispersion of different kinds of glass; and put forward a theory
of achromatism for the objectives and oculars of the telescope. [..,] In mathematical theory he
seems to have recognized before Lobachevski and Bolyai, the impossibility of a proof of Euclid's
"parallel postulate"; and considered the theory of the logarithms of negative numbers."
Yet this already exceptional life is eclipsed by the fact that Boscovich was, in the words of
L. L. Whyte, "the first scientist to develop a general physical theory using point* particles,"
antedating modern atomic theory by one hundred years. [...] Boscovich's work marked an
important stage in the .history of our ideas about the universe, 'and bis System will remain the
paradigm of the theory of point particles." In other words, Roger Joseph Boscövich is the
undisputed founder of one of the three families of atomic theory.
However, his attempts to modernize education lost him favor with bis ecclesiastical superi-
ors. When the pope suppressed the Jesuit Order in 1773, Boscovich continued his active scien-
tific life anyway.

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 Boscovich, Spinoza and Nietzsche: The Untold Story 201

was immense and yet to date has been almost entirely undiscerned. Nietzsche's
early intellectual influences were Arthur Schopenhauer, Richard Wagner, the
French moralist Montaigne and others, but later Roger Boscovich and Benedict
de Spinoza play definitive roles in his thoughts.
Wenn ich an meine philosophische Genealogie denke, so fühle ich mich im
Zusammenhang mit der antiteleologischen, d. h. spinozistischen Bewegung un-
serer Zeit, doch mit dem Unterschied, daß ich auch "den Zweck" und "den
Willen" in uns für eine Täuschung halte; ebenso mit der mechanistischen Be-
wegung [...] doch mit dem Unterschied, daß ich nicht an "Materie" glaube
und Boscovich für einen der großen Wendepunkte halte, wie Copernicus [...]
(KSA 11, 26[432]).
Boscovich's theory of force in Theona Philosophie Naturalis2 allowed Nietzsche
to invert Spinoza's pantheism by providing the theoretical suppositions of the
doctrine of eternal return of the same and the theory of will to power. In order
to narrate this almost entirely overlooked chapter of intellectual history, I will
show that the Nietzsche-Gast correspondence is the entry point to this story
(Part II). In a close analysis of the Nachlaß, I will then explain the roles played
by Roger Boscovich and Benedict de Spinoza in construction of proofs for the
eternal return of the same. Four important consequences of Boscovich's theory
will be specified (Part III). By examining the Nachlaß fiirther, I will detail the
role of Boscovich and Spinoza in the creation of a theory of will to pomr (Part
IV). The construction of what Nietzsche calls the "new world conception" in

L L· Lauden reports that Boscovich's considerable reputation today is based largely on the
theory of matter that he formulated in his Tlxoria Philosophie Naturalis (1763), which helped
shape modern conceptions both of matter and of the force field: "... Many leading nineteenth-
century physicists (esp. Faraday and Maxwell) incorporated ideas based on those of Boscovich
into their theories of the electromagnetic field." L. L. Whyte Stresses the modern nature of
Boscovich's System äs well: **Boscovich developed the idea that all phenomena arise from the
spatial parterns of identical point particles (puncta) interacting in pairs according to an oscillatory
läw which determines their relative acceleration. This view of matter is akin to that of recent
physics in that it is relational, structural and kinematic." In the case of high speed particles,
Roger Joseph Boscovich even foresaw the penetrability of matter.
Boscovich published about one hundred seiend fic treatises (most in Latin) and had an
academic scientiftc reputation on the entire continent and England. Zeljko Markovic summa-
rizes corpus and man by saying, "All his work, finally, may be read äs physical essays in the
working out of an epistemology and metaphysics that styled his carecr in a way, again, not at
all characteristic of his Century. [...] Sharp in thought, bold in spirit, independent in judgment,
zealous to be cxact, Boskovic was a man of eighteentlvcentury European science in some
rcspects and far ahead of his time in others. Among his works are writings that still repay study,
and not only from a historical point of view."
Boscovich travellcd extensively and was highly esteemed in social circlcs in France, Italy
and elsewhere. He knew Latin, Italian, French and Serbo-Croatian.
Roger Joseph Boscovich died on February 13 , 1787, due to an extcndcxl lung ailment.
2
Boscovich, Roger Joseph: Theoria Pbilosophia Naturalis Redacta ad Unicam Ijegem Virium in Natura
Existentium. Chicago, London, 1922. Latin-Engüsh edition from the text of the first Venetian
edition published under the personal superintendencc of the author in 1763.

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202 Grcg Whitlock

notes from 1886-1888 will bc tied to Boscovich and Spinoza (Part V). In a final
notc I quote Lord Kelvin reflecting on the importance of Roger Boscovich for
modern science (Part VI).
Karl Schlechta and Anni Anders first discovered the existence of a Bosco-
vich-Nietzsche connection in their colkborative work, Friedrich Nietzsche. Von den
verborgenen Anfangen seines Philosophierens (1962).3 But from there the track goes
cold, until George Stack gives Boscovich a central role in creation of the theory
of will to power in bis Lange and Nietzsche (1983).4 But none of these authors
accurately evaluate the real ränge of influence Boscovich had on Nietzsche. For
Schlechta and Anders, Boscovich's atomism is only one of three scientific theo-
ries Nietzsche had attempted to synthesize into an epistemology. For Stack,
boscovichian atomism still represents just one of many theories Nietzsche had
found of use in Friedrich Lange's Geschichte des Materialismus. Stack's real topic is
Lange, and although it is indisputable that Lange was a "treasure house" of
ideas for Nietzsche, it is nonetheless true that, after Consulting Lange and then
Rechners Atomenlehrey Nietzsche went direcdy to Boscovich's Theoria Philosophie
Naturalis and spent intensive effort in its study. The Nachlaß piece Schlechta
and Anders call "die Zeitatomenlehre" proves that, äs early äs 1872, Nietzsche
went well beyond the limited exegesis of Boscovich's theory available from either
Lange or Fechner. Stack counts Boscovich's influence on Nietzsche äs evidence
for Lange's influence, and thereby Boscovich does not receive bis due, and
becomes a flgure secondary to Lange. Very little of Boscovich's influence on
Nietzsche can be traced through Lange: their relation proves more direct and
deeper than that between Lange and Nietzsche. Stack barely discusses the possi-
bility of direct knowledge of Boscovich's principal work, and seems not to know
of the crucial note called "Zeitatomenlehre" published in Schlechta and. Anders.
In any case, Boscovich remains only one of many figures whom Stack wants to
trace through Lange.
Günter Abel masterfully places Boscovich and Spinoza in an extensive study
of the theoretical foundations of Nietzsche's worldview,5 but he did not find
some of the connections and evidence presented here. And one can still lose
sight of Boscovich in the depth and breadth of AbeTs work. A very recent work
by Babette E. Babich entitled Nietzsche's Philosoph) of Science** rejects the opinion
that Boscovich is unimportant for Nietzsche, but the author does not consider

3
Schlechta, Karl and Anders, Anni: Friedrich Nietzsche. Von den verborgenen Anfingen seines Philosophie-
rens. Stuttgart, Bad Cannstadt, 1962: 60-72.
4
Stack, George J.: Lange and Nietzsche, Berlin, New York, 1983.
5
Abel, Günter: Nietzsche. Die Dynamik der Willen %ur Macht und die ewige Wiederkehr. Berlin, 1984.
6
Babich, Babette E.: Nietzsche's Philosophy of Science: Reßecting Science on the Ground of Art and L·fe.
New York, 1994.

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 Boscovich, Spinoza and Nietzsche: The Untold Story 203

Boscovich or his ideas at length. And so it is still necessary to teil the story of
Nietzsche's profound debt to Roger Joseph Boscovich.
The story of Nietzsche and Boscovich, with the later receiving his füll due,
remains untold. I attempt here to examine die connection between Nietzsche
and Boscovich in aU its intricacies. In doing so, I bring together a set of citations
more complete than Stack's. I highlight the role of Boscovich's doctrine oißnite
force in the formation of the theories of will to power and eternal return of the
same. I believe this account will straighten out Stack's confused image of Bos-
covich's role in the theory of eternal return. My account will also link Nietzsche-
Spinoza studies to Nietzsche-Boscovich studies. By bringing these three thinkers
together, I will give an entirely new aspect to the issue of the "discovery of the
will to power." Boscovicb's theory of force is the parent theory to both the eternal return of
tbe same and the theory ofwill to power.
What I am suggesting here has a number of important implications for
Nietzsche studies. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this account is the
image of the young Nietzsche, seeking scientific support for the cornerstones
of a later philosophy. This image shatters the notion of a "positivist phase"
which some commentators have suggested, since my account traces a sustained
development of thought through every stage of the Nachlaß. My analysis also
casts the history of the notion of eternal return in a new light — one might say
that light is cast on certain aspects for the very first time. For the discovery of
finite force was the dectsive moment in the "new world conception." Nietzsche's
new world conception consisted of the idea of eternal return and its theoretical
supposition, will to power. And the source of this scientific conception was
Boscovich's Theoria. This completely rejects Martin Heidegger's representation
of Nietzsche's relation to science. A final, very unusual, feature of this account
is the list of major figures here, most of whom otherwise remain invisible in
Nietzsche's corpus: Boscovich, Lord Kelvin, Balfoure Stewart, Johann Carl
Friedrich Zöllner, Robert Mayer and many others.

//. The Gast correspondence: entry point to the story

Nietzsche's correspondence with Peter Gast offers an irreplacable opportu-

nity to estimate Boscovich's significance äs a thinker to Nietzsche. On March
20, 1882, Nietzsche wrote to Gast in order to argue Boscovich's relative impor-
tance over the mechanistic physicist Robert Mayer, Gast's choice äs the more
important scientist.
Wenn irgend Etwas gut widerlegt ist so ist es das Vorurteil vom "Stoffe": und
zwar nicht durch einen Idealisten sondern durch einen Mathematiker — durch
Boscovich. Er und Copernikus sind die beiden grössten Gegner des Augen-

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204 Greg Whitlock

Scheins: Seit ihm giebt es keinen Stoff mehr, es sei denn als populäre Erleichterung,
Er hat die atomische Theorie zu Ende gedacht (KSB 6 Brief 213).
And in August, 1883, Nietzsche writes to Gast of bis first exposure to the Jesuit
Boscovich, "der zuerst mathematisch demonstrirt hat, daß die Annahme erfüllter
Atompunkte eine für die strengste Wissenschaft der Mechanik unbrauchbare Hypo-
these sei [...]" (KSB 6 Brief 460). It is clear from the correspondence with Gast
that the primary significance of Boscovich äs a thinker, so far äs Nietzsche is con-
cerned, lies in his rejection of the massy corpuscular atom of newtonian natural
philosophy and in his discovery of atomic point particle theory.
In understanding the correspondence between Nietzsche and Gast, one should
realize that Boscovich represents to Nietzsche "die dynamische Welt-Befrachtung,"
whereas Robert Mayer represents what he calls "die mechanistisch atomische Welt-
Betrachtung." Also within this latter group one finds Eugen Dühring and Lord Kel-
vin, according to Nietzsche. The mechanistic worldview believes in the massy cor-
puscular "clump-atoms" of newtonian physics, "caüse and effect," "laws of nature,"
and especially irritating to Nietzsche, the "law of entropy."
Ultimately Nietzsche chose Boscovich over Robert Mayer äs the scientific
underpinnings for his own theory of reality. This caused Gast to write paiiifally
of the slight äs late äs November 29, 19137 lamenting that instead of Mayer,
Nietzsche
den Ragusaner Boscovich ins Feld führt, einen bloß mathematisch denkenden
Astronomen, der infolge seiner irrigen Vorstellung vom Wesen der Kraft an
den Punkt gelangt, die Existenz der Materie zu leugnen: es gebe nur Kraft.
Boscovich kommt von seinen atomistischen Spekulationen auf diesen Unsinn:
und da Methode darin lag, so gefiel er Nietzsche um so mehr, als diesem die
instinktgewordenen Physiker-Einsichten zur Kontrolle abgingen.

It testifies to Boscovich's influence on Nietzsche, that Gast writes here of

Nietzsche going out of control with the physicist's insights, to the point where
they had become second-nature. The idea that the there is no matter, but only force,
is one that Nietzsche will return to again and again in his notebooks. It is clear
from the Nachlaß that force is the central concept in Nietzsche's -theöry of will
to powef, and it will become clear later that the origin of Nietzsche's concept
of force is to be found in Boscovich's Theoria Philosophie Naturalis.
While Gast's ideas of matter coincided with the cürrents of physics of their
time, Nietzsche's instincts in the matter prove more modern* Writing of Gast's
enthusiasm for Mayer,8 F. R. Love comments that

7
Love, Frederick R.: Niet^sche's Saint Peter. Genesis and Cultivation of an Illusion. Berlin, New York,
1981: 188.
8
Love, Frederick R.: Nietzsche'* Samt Peter. Genesis and Cultivation ofan Illusion. Berlin, New York,
1981: 187-188.

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 Boscovich, Spinoza and Nietzsche: The Untold Story 205

In the meantime his jNietzsche's] speculations had become much more re-
sponsive to the physical theories of the Dalhiatian mathematician Roger Bos-
covich [..,]. Unprejudiced by a thorough grounding in contemporary physics,
Nietzsche's thinking was in fact much closer to the spirit of the nuclear age
than to the views of the day prevalent in the experimental sciences.
Indeed, Boscovich is, in L. L. Whyte's words, a scientist "one hundred and fifty
years too early." Apropos of Peter Gast, Whyte comments,9
Many prejudices had to be overcome before Boscovich's ideas could be fully
understood, for it is structural, relational, and kinematic, like the most ad-
vanced ideas of our time.
That he instinctually sought out a theory whose true value could only be appre-
ciated a Century beyond his own time, and two centuries beyond its conception,
is to Nietzsche's great credit. As will be seen later, Nietzsche's reworking of
Boscovich's atomic theory led to highly original and advanced speculations of
his own. And given the scientific atomism of his time, Nietzsche's scientific
ideas should strike one äs "untimely" äs those of Boscovich.
It is important to note that his correspondence with Gast proves Nietzsche
bad acquired an accurate idea of Boscovicb's scientißc theories m their detaii In his letter
to Gast of March 20, 1882, Nietesche writes,
Er [Boscovich] hat die atomistische Theorie zu Ende gedacht. Schwere ist ganz
gewiß keine "Eigenschaft der Materie," einfach weil es keine Materie giebt.
Schwerkraft ist, ebenso wie die vis inertiae, gewiß eine Erscheinungsform der
Kraft (einfach weil es nichts anderes giebt als Kraft!): nur ist das logische
Verhältniß dieser Erscheinungsform zu anderen, z. B. zur Wärme, noch ganz
undurchsichtig. [...] Die kinetische Theorie muß den Atomen mindestens
außer der Bewegungsenergie noch die beiden Kräfte der Cohaesion und der
Schwere zuerkennen. Dies tun auch alle materialistischen Physiker und Chemi-
ker! (KSB 6 Brief 213).
Such evidence proves beyond doubt that Nietzsche was thinking of Boscovich's theory
in its intricacies in 1882. Given this letter and other such evidence, it no longer
seems unlikely, but instead necessary, to link dozens of previously unconnected,
unexplained or cryptic notes in the Nachlaß of 1873-82 to Nietzsche's study of
Boscovich. Further, it will be proven that notes ofa scientißc natttre directly related to
Boscovich appear in the Nachlaß weil into the jear 1888. I believe äs many äs one
hundred notes may be clarified for the first time in light of this discovery of
Boscovich's significance.
Gast's comment that Nietzsche had "gone out of control" in his studies of
the mathematician signifies not only that Nietzsche was indeed intensively study-
ing Boscovich, but also that Nietzsche did so without any mention of Boscovich

9
Wy^LwcdotLw.RogerBoscoMS.J., E R. S.t 1711-1787; Staates of His Ufe and Wbrkon the
250th Annimrsarj of His Birih. London and New York, 1961 and 1964: 102.

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206 Greg Whidock

to bis reading public, confiding only to the trustworthy Gast of bis inteüectual
struggle with Boscovich. NietfcSGhe's notes leave relatively few meritions of bis
name, but his instinctual affinity to Roger Boscovich's atomism, once "out of
control," rcsulted in the core of the massive Nachlaß of the years 1883-1888.
Gast was personally taken back by the vehemence he found in Nietzsche's
attack on Robert Mayer. When Gast became editor of the Nachlaß for the
Großoktav-Ausgabe, he may have remembered the slight Gast would have been
alerted from correspondence (KSB 6 Brief 460), that Nietzsche discovered Bos-
covich for himself during the early Basel years, when he read a number of
atomic theorists. Purposely or not, Gast must have found the crucial Boscovich
study that Nietzsche left behind. This fragment, called the "Zeitatomenlehre,"
appeared in the fkst edition öf the GA, but not thereafter. Once the first,
hurried and unsatisfactory, printing of the GA was withdrawn from the public
and a more meticulous, carefully edited printing was prepared, Gast realized
what he had found in the Zeitatomenlehre. Thus it was expunged without a
trace, until Schlechta and Anders reprinted the text with photocopies of the
handwritten manuscript in 1962.

III. Boscovich, Spinoza and construction ofproofsfor the eternal return of the same
(1880-1882)

What, äs a first formulation, is the relation between Roger Joseph Boscovich,

Benedict de Spinoza and Friedrich Nietzsche? In essence, Nietzsche uses Bos-
covich's theory to construct a universe opposed in every way to Spinoza's pan-
theism. Boscovich offered a scientific and potentiälly atheistic universe which
rejected the last semblance of substance, i. e. material atoms. Thus Nietzsche
wanted tö use Boscovich's physical theory to construct a "new world concep-
tion," which would constitute an advance beyond mechanistic theory in its rejec-
tion of material atoms and also be totally void of metaphysical or theölogical
components. One may assume that Nietzsche wanted the new world conception
not äs a metaphysical dogma, but äs a justifying vision for free spirits who seek
non-theological perspectives.
Die Wissenschaft - das war bisher die Beseitigung der vollkommenen Verwor-
renheit der Dinge durch Hypothesen, welches alles "erklären" — also aus dem
Widerwillen des Intellekts an dem Chaos. - Dieser selbe Widerwillen ergreift
mich bei Betrachtung meiner selber., die innere Welt möchte ich auch"3ürch ein
Schema mir bildlich vorstellen und über die intellektuelle Verworrenheit her-
auskommen. [...] Die Physik ergibt sich als eine Wohltat für das Gernüth: die
Wissenschaft (als der Weg zur Kenntmß) bekommt einen neuen Zauber nach
der Beseitigung der Moral - und weil wir hier allein Consequenz finden, so
müssen wk unser Leben darauf einrichten, sie uns zu erhalten. Dies ergiebt eine

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 Boscovich, Spinoza and Nietzsche: The Untold Story 207

Art praktischen Nachdenkens über unsere Existenzbedingungen als Erken-

nende. (KSA 10, 24[18]: all emphases in original.)
I am not suggesting that äs early äs 1872 Nietzsche intended to employ his
study of Boscovich in a project to invert spinozism. I do.suggest that Nietzsche
developed Boscovich's "dynamic conception of the worid" into his own "new
world conception," and that this latter conception was conceived of äs diametri-
cally opposed to Spinoza's pantheism. Nietzsche's new world conception is de-
fined by finite force. This completely inverts the metaphysics of Spinoza. Infinite
faire, a necessary postulate for Spinoza, entails infinite novelty, creation ex nihilo,
infinite extension and other remnants of theology. Finite force entails finite
novelty, conservation of energy and finite space. Finite force, but wtbout Material
atoms^ was the new perspective Nietzsche sought and found in fragmentary form
in Boscovich's theory. This entire confrontation between boscovichian dyna-
mism and spinozistic metaphysics occurs dramatically in the notebooks of 1880-
1882. Boscovich's theory of zforce-point-world has four conseqüences that directly
invert Spinoza's pantheism.

A. First Conseqüences of Boscovich's Theory: No Substance

As has already been shown, Boscovich's primary significance äs a thinker,

to Nietzsche and others, is that he has rejected the idea of solid, extended
material atoms. In rejecting matter, Boscovich rejects extension altogether and
views space relativistically, in a leibnizian sense. Nietzsche comments in many
notes that matter is merely one hypothesis drawn from the metaphysics of sub-
stance. In the long march of reductionist science, the concept of matter consti-
tutes the final relic of the metaphysics of substance. By eliminating this holdover,
Boscovich completes the destruction of the metaphysics of substance. With his
victorious concept of force, substance no longer has its raison d'etre.
The only explicit mention of Boscovich in Nietzsche's published works oc-
curs zt Jenseits von Gut und Böse; section 12. Although this mention Stands alone,
it makes clear that Boscovich holds a special significance to the author.
Was die materialistische Atomistik betrifft: so gehört dieselbe zu den bestwi-
derlegten Dingen, die es giebt; vielleicht ist heute in Europa Niemand unter
den Gelehrten mehr so ungelehrt, ihr ausser zum bequemen Hand- und Haus-
gebrauch (nämlich als einer Abkürzung der Ausdrucksmittel) noch eine
ernstliche Bedeutung zuzumessen - Dank vorerst jenem Polen Boscovich, der,
mitsammt dem Polen Kopernicus, bisher der grösste und siegreichste Gegner
des Augenscheins war. Während nämlich Kopernicus uns überredet hat zu
glauben, wider alle Sinne, dass die Erde nicht fest steht, lehrte Boscovich dem
Glauben an das Letzte, was von der Erde "feststand," abschwören, dem
Glauben an den "Stoff", an die "Materie", an das Erdenrest- und Klümpchen-

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208 Greg Whitlock
Atom: es war der grösstc Triumph über die Sinne, der bisher auf Erden er-
rungen worden ist
Aside frorn the fact that Boscovich was a Dalmatian, and not a Pole, it is clear
from this section that Nietzsche understands Boscovich's place in the history of
atomism; for the latter adopts point partkles - unextended and dynarnic - äs
the "first elements of matter" in his atomism. He rejects the solid, extended
corpuscles of all atomism hitherto - what Nietzsche calls the "Klümpchen-
Atom." With his doctrine of atomism, which modified the massy corpuscles of
newtonian natural philosophy into immaterial centers of force, Boscovich helped
emancipate physics from naive atomism's uncritical assumption that the ultimate
units of matter are small, individual, rigid pieces possessing shape, size, weight
and other properties.
Nietzsche's notebooks reinforce the Impression that Boscovich's significance
äs a thinker, according to Nietzsche, lies in the former's rejection of any and all
materiality. Nietzsche credits Boscovich with annihilation of the "Stoff-Aber-
glauben" (KSA 9, 15[21]), and elsewhere he credits Boscovich with the idea of
"kein Stoff" (KSA 11, 26[302]). In tracing his own intellectual development,
Nietzsche writes, "daß ich nicht an 'Materie' glaube und Boscovich für. einen
der großen Wendepunkt halte, wie Copernicus [...]" (KSA 11, 26[432]).
I should note before concluding this section that Nietzsche refers to Johann
Gustav Vogt (KSA 10, 24[36]) and Afrikan Spir (KSA 11, 35[56]; KSA 11,
35[61]; KSA 11,40[12] and KSA 11,40[24]), including page numbers and quota-
tions, proving that Nietzsche was reading Vogt (himself a boscovichian) and
Spir in 1885, twelve years after the "Zeitatomenlehre." In direct proximity to
these notes, one finds a series of aphorisms concerning "Kraft-Atome," "Kraft-
Combinationen," "Atome," "Gestalt des Raumes," and then a reference to Bos-
covich so clear äs to be undeniable, once recognized.
Die mathematischen Physiker können die Klümpchen-Atome nicht für ihre
Wissenschaft brauchen: folglich construiren sie sich eine Kraft-Punkt-Welt, mit
der man rechnen kann. Ganz so, im Groben, haben es die Menschen und alle
organischen Geschöpfe gemacht [...] (KSA 11, 40[36]).
Close to this aphorism are two more notes which figure decisively into my
account: at KSA 11, 36[31] and KSA 11, 36[34] we find two notes connecting
Boscovich's dynamic worldview to the idea of force and in turn connecting
force to the idea of will to power. Also in this düster is an aphorism entitled
Am Leitfaden des Leibes, a phrase Nietzsche used to describe Boscovichs's project
in a letter to Gast. Notes crucial to the transformation of force into nntl power
cluster in close proximity to these other important notes. This entire series of
notes, from notebooks 36 and 40 (W 14 and W I 7 a) decisively show that
Boscovich was foundational to development of a theory of will to power, and
that Nietzsche was employing the former's concept of force while declining to

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 Boscovich, Spinoza and Nietzsche: The Untold Story 209

note intellectual indebtedness. I conclude from the evidence that every aphorism
in the section designated "Darstellung der Lehre und ihrer theoretischen Vorausset-
zungen und Folgen" (KSA 10, 24[4]) in the 1885 notebooks relates directly to
Roger Joseph Boscovich and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that his con-
cept of force is the parent theory to the notion of will to power.

B. Second Consequence of Boscovich's Theory: No Infinite Force

It will be shown soon that Nietzsche was contemplating a long work on the
eternal return and its theoretical assumptions. Although the project was never
completed, he still wants to make clear "Our presuppositions: no God: finite
force." This is the great divide between metaphysics of substance and his new
world conception. In his notebooks of 1880-1882, we find a number of signifi-
cant aphorisms arguing for the finitude of force. These notes constitute forerun-
ners to Fröhliche Wissenschaft 109, an aphorism of extreme importance for my
Interpretation. It poses the question,
Es giebt keine ewig dauerhaften Substanzen; die Materie ist ein eben solcher
Irrthum, wie der Gott der Eleaten. Aber wann werden wir am Ende mit un-
serer Vorsicht und Obhut sein! Wann werden uns alle diese Schatten Gottes
nicht mehr verdunkeln? Wann werden wir die Natur ganz entgöttlicht haben!
Yet FW109 does not contain the füll answer to its own question. That awaits
a note from 1885:
Welches ist denn aber der Satz und Glaube, mit welchem sich die ent-
scheidende Wendung, das jetzt erreichte Übergewicht des wissenschaftlichen
Geistes über den religiösen götter-erdichtenden Geist, am bestimmtesten for-
mulirt? Heißt er nicht: die Welt, als Kraft, darf nicht unbegrenzt gedacht wer-
den, denn sie kann nicht so gedacht werden — wir verbieten uns den Begriff
einer unendlichen Kraft als mit dem Begriff "Kraß9 unverträglich (KSA 11, 36[15]).
This note explicitly identifies Spinoza with the notion that the world intention-
ally avoids a goal and even knows artifices for keeping itself from entering into
a circular course. These artifices are infinite power. the infinite modification of an
infinite number of attributes endlessly into time, Nietzsche evidently reasons,
would require infinite force for its duration.
Die Welt, wenn auch kein Gott mehr, soll doch der göttlichen Schöpferkraft,
der unendlichen Verwandlungs-Kraft fähig sein; sie soll es sich willkürlich ver-
wehren, in einer ihrer alten Formen zurückzugerathen, sie soD nicht nur die
Absicht, sondern auch die Mittel haben, sich selber vor jeder Wiederholung zu
bewahren:, sie soll somit in jedem Augenblick jede ihrer Bewegungen auf die
Vermeidung von Zielen, Endzuständen, Wiederholungen hin controliren - und
was Alles die Folgen einer solchen unverzeihlich-verrückten Denk- und
Wunschweisc sein mögen. Das ist immer noch die alte religiöse Denk- und

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210 GregWhitlock

Wunsch weise, eine Art Sehnsucht zu glauben, daß irgndiwrin doch die Welt
dem alten geliebten, unendlichen, unbegrenzt-schöpferischen Gotte gleich sei
- daß irgendworin doch "der alte Gott noch lebe", - jene Sehnsucht Spinoza's,
die sich in dem Worte "deus sivc natura"<(er empfand sogar "natura sive deus" —)
ausdrückt (KSA 11, 36[15j).
The metaphysics of substance requires infinite force to power its infinite modifi-
cations; the physics of finite force always considers infinitude äs unimaginable,
abstract and not actually found in nature. Nietzsche believes thät the metaphys-
ics of substance logically entails infinite force: and he believes he can produce
an argument that the very rejectiön of substance entails finite force. This argu-
ment he finds in Boscovich's Theoria Philosophie Naturalis. A comparison of this
note to Jenseits von Gut und Böse 12 and 36, KSA 11, 36[34] and KSA 11, 36[31],
proves that it is precisely Boscovich \vho is the author of this new principle of
finite force. For Boscovich rejects the last remnant of substance when he adopts
the point particle atomic theory. Yet the number of such particles is finite and
the distances between centers of force finite. Thus force will form a finite
universe. Although the theoretical implications pf this may not be obvious at
first, the fact that Nietzsche secures a scientific basis for a principle of "finite
force allows him to construct a proof for another principle, whose line of rea-
soning is short and direct.

C. Third Consequences of Boscovich's Theory: No Infinite Novelty

One finds in the notebooks of 1880—82 several notes which reasori that
infinite force implies infinite novelty and finite force implies finite novelty (e. g.
KSA 9, 11[213], KSA 9, 11[269] and KSA 9, 11(305]). Considering that this
period is one of intensive study of Spinoza, and that he is one of the few sources
of this obscure phrase, it is reasonable to conclude that Nietzsche is working
here with a principle found originally in Spinoza. Proposition XVI of Spinoza's
Ethics (Book One) deduces an infinite novelty of modificatiöns of substance
from its infinite power: "From the necessity of the divine nature there must
follow infinite things in infinite ways [...]." And Nietzsche likewise reasons that
finite power entails finite novelty in the universe. This much is clear from KSA
11, 36[15]:
Auf diesen Einfall - daß also die Welt absichtÜQh einem Ziele ausweiche und
sogar das Hineingerathen in einen Kreislauf künstlich zu verhüten wisse -
müssen alle die verfallen, welche der Welt das Vermögen zur ewigen Neuheit
aufdekretiren möchten, das heißt einer endlichen, bestimmten, unveränderlich
gleich großen Kraft, wie es "die Welt" ist - die Wunder-Fähigkeit zur un-
endlichen Neugestaltung ihrer Formen und Lagen.

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 Bpscovich, Spinoza and Nietzsche: The Untold Story . 211

Nietzsche completes this crucial note with the ^cpnclusion, "Also - fehlt der
Welt auch das Vermögen zur ewigen Neuheit."
And so while it was Boscovich's reasoning that had lead from rejection of
substance to finite force, it is Spinoza's reasoning (albeit inverted) which leads
from finite force to finite novelty. And this makes sense, since any finite universe
will be able to contain a finite amount of anything. Indeed, Boscovich says that
infinitude is not found in nature, even though there may be an infinite insertibil-
ity of points in a finite space. Whether or not the scientific spirit requires the
postulates of finite space and force remains a peripheral question to my inquiry.
What is of import here is the fact that, once Nietzsche began his elucidation of
the theoretical presuppositions of his notion of eternal return, he correctly saw
the implications of Spinoza's proposition and its converse. It is in the notebooks
of 1880—1882 that this reasoning may be found.

D. Fourth Consequence of Boscovich's Theory: Eternal Return of the Same

In the first formulation of eternal return — dated to Autumn, 1881 —

Nietzsche uses the concept of force to characterize his notion.
Die Welt der Kräfte kommt also nie in ein Gleichgewicht, sie hat nie einen
Augenblick der Ruhe, ihre Kraft und ihre Bewegung sind gleich groß für jede
Zeit (KSA 9, 11 [l 48]).
Der Kreislauf ist nichts Gewordenes, er ist das Urgesetz, so wie die Kraftmenge
Urgesetz ist, ohne Ausnahme und Übertretung. Alles Werden ist innerhalb des
Kreislaufs und der Kraftmenge [...] (KSA 9, 11 [l 5 ).
In such a world there is no matter, there is only force. From the notes of 1880-82
we may stitch together a worldview showing decisive contributions by Bosco-
vich. Dozens of notes in Band 9 of KSA evidence the influence of Boscovich
on Nietzsche's vocabulary and ideas. In close proximity to this early sketch of
eternal return, one finds evidence of continued interest in pointal
"Empfindungstheorie" at KSA 9, 6 [441]. An important early shift from force to
tbefeeling of force occurs at KSA 9, 10[F 100] and KSA 9, 10[F 101]. Continued
interest in atomism is evident in many other notes also (e. g. KSA 9, 11 [33],
KSA 9, 11[247] and KSA 9, 11 [264]). And an attempt to bridge the world of
atomic force to organic life may be found at KSA 9, 11 [l 39].
Strong echoes of the "Zeitatomenlehre" may be heard in various other
notes: "Augenblick als höchste Realität" (KSA 9, 11[156]; "Kraftlagen" (KSA 9,
11(232]); "Stoß" (KSA 9, [264]; "Kraftströmungen" (KSA 9, 11 [278)); "Be-
wegung ist Zeit" (KSA 9, 11 [281]); "absoluter Fluß" (KSA 9, 11 [293]); "Zeit-
punkt" (KSA 9, 11 [305]; "Kraftcentren des Universums" (KSA 9, 11 [311]);

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212 GrcgWhitlock

"Zeitlosigkeit und Succession" (KSA 9, 11[318]); "Kraft braucht Zeh" (KSA 9,

12[160]); "Sein ist Summe aller Relationen" (KSA 9, 13[11]).
There are a number of notes employing the concept of force (KSA 9,
11[169], KSA 9, 11[184], KSA 9,11 [201] and a number of passages based on
die finitudc of force in the universe (KSA 9,11 [202], KSA 9,11 [292)] and KSA
9, 11 [345], both representing legacies of Boscovich studies.
If one remains unconvinced that Boscovich is the source of the concept
of force underlying so many notes, then Nietzsche's reference to "die letzte
Consequenz" of the mechanist idea of motion äs "Kraft in mathematischen
Punkten und mathematischen Linien" should leave little doubt that he was medi-
tating on Boscovich's ideas, however critically, in this time period. But a decisive
piece of evidence comes from the forerunrier note to Jenseits von Gut und Böse 12
at KSA 9, 15[21], which mentions Boscovich by name in very close proximity
to the citations roughly outlining a force-point-world. One note at KSA 9, 21 [3]
rejects matter and even experimentally argues that force itself is a contradiction.
These notes firmly establish that Boscovich is a major source of ideas for
Nietzsche in this period. All evidence point to an intensive rereading of the
Theoria Philosophie Naturalis, along with Spir, Vogt (himself a boscovichian) et
alia in this period. Boscovich's force-point-world provides the basic topography
of Nietzsche's new worldview, and so when Nietzsche assembles the scientific
principles for a proof of eternal return, he relies upon the boscovichian theory
of force and describes the boscovichian dynamic worldview. In the period 1880-
82, these principles are still in the stage of assembly: it will not be until 1883
that Nietzsche constructs a relatively detailed proof for eternal return. But
Nietzsche will continue to sketch proofs for eternal return through 1883, ever-
more exacdy spelling out its thepretical suppositions and consequences. These
late formulations show the most clearly boscovichian phrases and vocabulary.
One may legitimately ask, if Boscovich furnished the crucial principle of
finite force, and if he also may be inferred to believe in endless time, then why
did not Boscovich himself consider the consequence of eternal return of the
same? I would answer this by suggesting that Boscovich did indeed consider
the possibiiity, even the logical necessity, of eternal return, in Article 90 and its
synopsis in Theoria Philosophie Naturalis.
Any interval whatever will be finite,· and at least divisible indefinitely by the
Interpolation of other points, and still others; each such set however, when
they have been interpolated, will be also finite in numbe£ So that there is only
an infinity of possible points, but not of existing points. [...] Further, in this
way, by doing away with all idea of an actual infinity in existing things, truly
countless diffieulties are got rid of (Article 90 of the Theoria).
But most especially, they (non-extended points) do away with the idea of every-
thing continuous coexisting. [...] Fürther, nothing infinite is found actually

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 Boscovich, Spinoza and Nietzsche: The Untold Story 213

existing; the only thkig possibie is a series of finite things produced indefinitely.
(From Synopsis of Tbeoria).
Yet Boscovich deduces not an indefinite repetdtion of finite things, but rather
an indefinite duration of forces in a finite space. This is ppssible without repeti-
tion for Boscovich, because space has infinite componibility, allowing that no
point of matter ever occupy the same point of space occupied by another point
of matter, nor that the same point of space is ever occupied by itself at any
other time.
We come, at this moment, to perhaps the strängest chapter in an already
surprising intellectual history. For in the Appendix on Mind and God to the
T/jeoria Philosophie Natoralis, Boscovich argues from the finitude of force to infi-
nite novelty, and from there to the necessary existence of God, whom he calls
"the External Being." It will flabbergast even the casual reader of the Theoria to
come upon the sentence.
[...] now, äs regards the Divine Founder of Nature Himself, there shines forth
very clearly in my Theory, not only the necessity of admitting His existence in
every way, but also His excellent and infinite Power, Wisdom and Foresight
[-].'
since his theory explicidy rejects infinite force, and since there is no necessity
whatsoever for God in the physical theory of the Theoria. Indeed, Boscovich
calls God the External Being> because He is the Being perfectly external to force.
In a letter to Gast, Nietzsche emphasizes the fact that God is unnecessary to
Boscovich's theory, whereas God is essential to Robert Mayer's theory.
Now of course, äs previously noted, Boscovich was a devout Jesuit and was
expected to include in any such major work some clear admission of orthodoxy.
Thus with his Appendix, Boscovich won the approval of the "Censors of the
College of Padua" and the "Inquisitor General of the Holy Office in Venice,"
and was then successfully "registered in the High Court for the Prevention of
Blasphemy" on September 18,1758. It is a forgotten quirk of intellectual history
that Boscovich's "proof" of God's existence rests on actual infinity a suppdsition
that the entire Theoria Philosophie Naturalis rejects out of necessity and accepts
only here. But then the Censors of the College were not likely to read any of
the text, one assumes, and would instead go direcdy to the Appendix on Mind
and God.
I must conclude from this evidence, that Nietzsche knew Boscovich fol-
lowed the logic of eternal return to the brink of its conclusion, but averted it
by denying his own tenets. In arguing for the necessity of God, Boscovich
argued against three counter-views: first, that the universe is fortuitous; second,
that the universe is the result of fate; and third, that the universe has existed
through time by laws of its own. All of these positions play a role in the idea
of eternal return. In each of his arguments, Boscovich suddenly suspends a basic

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214 Greg Whitlock

tcnet to introduce a necessary premiss for the Creators existence. Thus we read
with completely ncw insight a passage from 1888:
Die Hypothese einer geschaffenen Wetasoll uns nicht einen Augenblick beküm-
mern. [...) Ich bin auf diesen Gedanken bei früheren Denkern gestoßen: jedes
Mal war er durch andere Hintergedanken bestimmt (— meistens theologische,
zu Gunsten des creator Spiritus) (KSA 13,14[188]).
Boscovich could be relied upon to furnish a dynamic worldview that does not
require God in any meaningful way. Once Nietzsche gathered the scientific
principles he desired from the Theoriay Boscovich would not play a wider role in
his philosophy. This earns Boscovich the title of head engineer for the construc-
tion crew of Nietzsche's "new world conception." For, although Nietzsche knew
of several atomists - Johann Gustav Vogt, Gustav Theodor Fechner, Schmitz-
Dumont, Otto Liebmann and of course Democritus —, it was only Boscovich
who had "die atomistische Theorie zu Ende gedacht." In Nietzsche's eyes only
Boscovich had disproven the notion of matter, and with it the last sernblaiice
of substance and God. Nietzsche recognized the ulterior theological motives of
such smoke-screens äs the Appendix on Mind and God. In overcoming atom-
ism, Boscovich achieved what even the great Spinoza coüld not do: namely, let
go of the last metaphysical refuge of God.

IV. Boscovich, Spinoza and Discövery of "The Will tö Power"

In order to outline the "discovery" of the will to power äs a theory, I could

do no better for my purpose than to turn to Giorgio Coffi's "Nachwort" to
Band 11 of the KSA. I am in complete agreement with his claim that,
In diesen nachgelassenen Fragmenten des Sommers 1885 erlebt man einen
interessanten Moment in Nietzsches Entwicklung: Die Entstehung der Theorie
vom Willen zur Macht geht von der Sprache seiner sogenannten positivi-
stischen Periode aus, von den mechanistischen Formulierungen und vom wis-
senschaftlichen Begriff der „Kraft" [...] . , ^

In the Nachlaß of 1885 Nietzsche writes,

Von den Welt-Ausdeutungen, welche bisher versucht worden sind, scheint
heutzutage die mechanistische siegreich im Vordergrund zu stehen: ersichdich
hat sie das gute Gewissen auf ihrer Seite; und keine Wissenschaft glaubt bei
sich selber an einen Fortschritt und Erfolg^ es sei denn, wenn er mit Hülfe
mechanistischer Prozeduren errungen ist (KSA 11, 36[34]).
Unlike the myths,, religions and rrietaphysics of the past,'the mechanistic science
of the modern age has the intellectuäl eonscience of scientific method. And by
virtue of its methods, it Stands above all other fprms of knowledge." But within
the tradition there are the seeds of dissent and change.

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 Boscovich, Spinoza and Nietzsche: The Untold Story 215

Man kann Druck und Stoß selber nicht "e$Jären", man wird die actio in
distans nicht los: — man hat den Glauben an das Erklären-können selber verlo-
ren und giebt mit sauertöpfischer Miene zu, daß Beschreiben und nicht Erklä-
ren, daß die dynamische Welt-Auslegung, mit ihrer Leugnung des "leeren
Raumes", der Klümpchen-Atorne, in Kurzem über die* Physiker Gewalt haben
wird: wobei man freilich zur Dynamis noch eine innere Qualität --- (KSA
H,36[34]).
The explanatory power of the niechanistic worldview, in Nietzsche's eyes, has
decreased to the point where the rise of a new dominant Interpretation becomes
necessary. The dynamic Interpretation of the world which rejects the corpuscular
"little-clump"-atoms is none other than Boscovich's atomic theory. At KSA 11,
26 [410] Nietzsche notes that the "mechanistisch atomistische Welt-Betrachtung
[...] hat noch nicht ihren letzten Schritt gethan: der Raum als Maschine, der
Raum endlich" This final advance in mechanistic philosophy is credited instead
to "Boscovich — die dynamische Welt-Betrachtung."
One should note that the dynamic worldview historically and conceptually
grows out of the mechanistic worldview: they are not two rival worldviews. Thus
Nietzsche gives the following account of scientific thinking in a note previously
identified äs the crucial document explicitiy linking Nietzsche, Spinoza and Bos-
covich.
Wenn ich an meine philosophische Genealogie denke, so fühle ich mich im
Zusammenhang mit der antiteleologischen, d. h. spinozistischen Bewegung un-
serer Zeit, doch mit dem Unterschied, daß ich auch "den Zweck" und "den
Willen" in uns für eine Täuschung halte; ebenso mit der mechanistischen Be-
wegung [...] doch mit dem Unterschied, daß ich nicht an "Materie" glaube
und Boscovich für einen der großen Wendepunkte halte, wie Copernicus; [. . .]
(KSA 11,26(432]).
By mechanistic movement Nietzsche means the scientific "Zurückführung aller
moralischen und aesthetischen Fragen auf physiologische, aller physiologischen
auf chemische, aller chemischen auf mechanische." Boscovich 's dynamic
worldview rejects the solid atom theory and develops the notion that, all^phe-
nomena arise from spatial patterns of identical unextended point particles in-
teracting in pairs, according to an oscillatory law which determines their relative
acceleration. These point particles are also called "centers of force." Indeed the
significance of Boscovich äs a thinker for Nietzsche is the discovery of force:
ihm are no Material atoms, but onlj force. There were, of course, thinkers antedating
Boscovich who developed concepts of force, most notably Newton and Leibniz:
it was precisely the concepts of force of these two thinkers whom Boscovich
had hoped to combine, and the improve upon, in Theoria Philosophie Naturalis.
Regardless of historkal predecessors, in Nietzsche's estimation, it was Boscovich
who discovered the decisive concept of force.
But even Boscovich's dynamic concept of force lacked an inner will. Consider
once again the passage from the 1885 Nachlaß predicting that the dynamic

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216 GrcgWhitlöck

Interpretation of the world will shortly come to dominate physicists, which trails
off vvith the mysterious comment, "wobei man freilich zur Dynamis noch eine
innere Qualität " (KSA 11, 36[34]). I believe the thought which completes
the aphorism would run similar to: "j hinzudenken muß." In other words,
Boscovich's dynamic Interpretation will soon come to dominate physics, al-
though his theory still lacks an infernal dynamic principle. In a note closely
preceeding the one referred to above, Nietzsche writes,
Der siegreiche Begriff "Kraft", mit dem unsere Physiker Gott und die Welt
geschaffen haben, bedarf noch einer Ergänzung: es muß ihm eine innere Welt
zugesprochen werden, welche ich bezeichne als 'Willen zur Macht", d. h. als
unersättliches Verlangen nach Bezeigung der Macht; oder Verwendung, Aus-
übung der Macht, als schöpferischen Trieb usw. (KSA 11, 36[31]).
This note shows the origin of the theory of will to power in the physicist's
concept of force, and especially the victorious concept which a previous note
showed to be the atomic dynamism of Boscovich. As the centerpiece of the
dynamic worldview, Boscovich's theory of a force-poiniworld counts äs the parenf theory
to tbat ofthe ivill to power. This conclusion goes far beyond the pioneering studies
of Schlechta and Anders, and although George Stack understands this parentage
well, I believe bis account of it seems muddled, nor does Stack seem to under-
stand Boscovich's role in construction of the eteriial return of the same.
Spinoza's concept of conatus, äs William Wurzer and Yirmiyahu Yovel have
recendy shown,10 is the beginning point of this inner will to force. As the attentive
reader woüld point out, this notion may also be traced to Schopenhauer. Yet
KSA 9, 11 [307] shows Nietzsche's idea of the exact relation between the two
thinkers on this notion; i. e. that Schopenhauers notion of Selbsterhaltung itselfis a direct
hentagefrom Spinoza. Nietzsche rejected the will tö survive for the will to power. And
indeed many notes of 1885 directly reject the principle of Selbsterhaltung. My
claim is that Nietzsche's critique of Spinoza is strategically tied to his modifica-
tion of Boscovich's theory of force.
In the notebooks of 1885, one finds a series of notes in which the very
birth process of the theory of will to power may be seen. Throügtiout these
notes one finds principles and vocabulary of a clearly boscovichian flavor:
"Kraft," "Kraft-Combination," "Kraftatom," "Kraftstellungen," et alia. With the
addition of an inner will to force, the theory of will to power exists for the first time
äs an independent entity in 1885.
Nopetheless the theory is in the fkst hours of its infancy, and threatens to
suffer sudden death.

10
Wurzer, William S.: Nietzsche und Spinoza. Meisenheim am Glan, 1975. - Yovel, Yirmiyahu:
"Nietzsche and Spinoza: amorfa/i and amor dei? In: Nietzsche äs Affirmative Tbinker. Dordrecht,
1988: 183-203.

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 Boscovich, Spinoza and Nietzsche: The Untold Story 217

Die Frage ist {...]: ob wir den Willen wirklidj vals wirkend anerkennen? Thun
wir das, so kann er natürlich nur auf etwas wirken^ was seiner Art ist: und nicht
auf "Stoffe", Entweder muß man alle Wirkung als Illusion auffassen [...] und
dann ist gar nichts begreiflich: oder man muß versuchen, sich alle Wirkungen
als gleicher Art, wie Willensakte zu denken, also die 'Hypothese machen, ob
nicht alles mechanische Geschehen, insofern eine Kraft darin ist, eben Willens-
kraft ist (KSA n, 4 ).
This is the final transition from boscovichian force. Nietzsche still holds the
boscovichian legacy that there is no matter, there is onlj force. But now Nietzsche
has made his own autonomous addition, for all force is will to power. Nietzsche,
like Boscovich, now has a unified theory of force. The term <cWillenskraft" in
the passage above illustrates the debt Nietzsche owes to Boscovich's theory of
force especially well.
One must note in ciosing that the passage above also evidences the tension
between Nietzsche's first-order theory of will to power and his second-order
theory questioning the validity of any first-order theory. Nietzsche develops this
perspectivism äs a means of unifying these orders. But even in this perspectiv-
ism, Boscovich's influence is pervasive, for the nucleus of perspective is always
a "Kraftcentrum" or "Kraftatom." As Nietzsche succinctly put the idea, "Der
Wille zur Macht interpretirt" (KSA 12, 2[148]).
As my account would have it, then, the theory of will to power begins äs
the concept of dynamic force äs taken from Roger Joseph Boscovich. From a
critique of Boscovich's spiridess scientific view of force, Nietzsche concluded
the need for an inner will to force, which he received from Spinoza's concept of
conatus. His further critique of the principle of Selbsterhaltung led him to posit
the presence of a will to absolute power over all time and space within each
center of force. Such a first-order theory had itself to undergo his own critique
of scientific "truth" äs developed to that time. This ultimately led to a theory
of power in which centers of force became nudei of perspective. As Nietzsche himself
reflected,
Der Werth der Atomistik ist: Sprache und Ausdrucksmittel zu finden für unsere
Gesetze (KSA 11, 25[394]).
He succeeded in evaluating and profiting from Roger Joseph Boscovich's atomic
pointalism in 1885, and the reward was his newborn theory of will to power.

V. The New World Conception (1886-88)

Using language he has taken over from Boscovich, Nietzsche argues for the
eternal return of the same in a very famous passage from 1888:
Wenn die Welt als bestimmte Größe von Kraft und als bestimmte Zahl von
Kraftcentren gedacht werden darf— und jede andere Vorstellung bleibt unbe-

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218 GrcgWhidock

stimmt und folglich unbrauchbar ~- so folgt daraus, daß sie eine berechenbare
Zahl von Combinationen, im großen Würfelspiel ihres Daseins, durchzu-
machen hat. In einer unendlichen Zeit würde jede mögliche Combination ir-
gendwann einmal erreicht sein; mehrnoch, sie würde unendliche Male erreicht
sein (KSA 13, 14[188]).
It is no accident that this argument contains the vocabulary of force and centers
of force, along with the ideas of finite force, combinations of events, shaped
and finite space and the conditioning of combinations; for it is Boscovich who
supplied the scientific notions and insights used by Nietzsche to construct this
argument. The theoretical assumptions of the eternal return are a boscovichian
legacy, now uniquely reworked and redirected tb alien goals.
What are those goals? As previously stated, they are to construct a world
opposed in every way to Spinoza's päntheism.
Da begreift man, daß hier ein Gegensatz zum Pantheismus angestrebt wird
[...](KSA12,5[71]7).
This new conception of the world represents the most extreme form of nihilism:
meaninglessness, eternally!
Denken wir diesen Gedanken in seiner furchtbarsten Form: das Dasein, so wie
es ist, ohne Sinn und Ziel, aber unvermeidlich wiederkehrend, ohne ein Finale
in Nichts: "die ewige Wiederkehr" (KSA 12, 5[71]6),
It is clear from whence the meaninglessness comes. Nietzsche's universe, being
finite in force, contains a closed sei of centers of force, events and their combina-
tions. Given infinite time, this closed set must repeat itself infinitely many times.
There is no end-state of the universe, no göal, no purpose for which it exists
and therefore there is no meaning.
In this way Nietzsche Strips the universe of its last resemblance to the God
of theology: no creation, no infinitude, no purpose, no infinite novelty and no
substance. The atomism allowing him to make his theoretical presuppositions
consistent, was supplied by Roger Joseph Boscovieh. But it must be remarked
that when Nietzsche explicätes "our presuppositions" äs including "no God,"
then he parts Company with Boscovich; for outside the world of physical force
resides the External Being, Boscovich's personal theological holdover. As Brani-
slav Petronievic commented,11 Boscovich was, regardless of his active secular
life, a devout Jesuit and believer. But this conflicts in no way with our account
of the relation between Nietzsche and Boscovich: for it has always been äs a
case of use and possibly abuse that I have presented this history. Nietzsche
frequendy covered the sources of his ideas, with the intensity of his efforts
generally varying proportionally with tbe importance of the contribution. In our

11
Petronievic, Branislav: Ufe of Roger Boscovich. In: Boscovich's Theoria Philosophie! Naturalis. Chi-
cago, 1922: ix.

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 Boscovich, Spinoza and Nietzsche: The Untold Story 219

case, Nietzsche exercizes great self-restraint to keep Boscovich's role in low-

profiie.
The question may still be raised whether Nietzsche's interest in Boscovich
was piqued and then waned after the mention found in Jenseits von Gut und Böse.
This doubt is allayed by the existence of notes äs late äs 1888, in which
Nietzsche direcdy relates the birth of the will to power äs theory to rejection
of matter at the hands of "physicists." His will to power is characterized in
terms of forces which no longer merely account for "physical" properties, but
which seek to extend their power over all space and time. Scientific considera-
tions, such äs the connection of organic to inorganic matter, chemistry, the
nervous System, etc., aböuöd in the late notebooks.
In the extremely impprtant note entitled Die neue Welt-Conception (KSA 13,
14[188]), Nietzsche describes the world äs "bestimmte Größe von Kraft und als
bestimmte Zahl von Kraftcentren." This new world conception is his reworking
of the boscovichian dynamic world conception. It is built from centers offorce
intoßeük offorce, and in turn into the apparently solid macro-objerts of experience.
Centers of force are absolutely non-persistent externalizations of a finite and
definite magnitude of force. The total amount of force in the world is finite and
conserved, the finite number of combinations of forces being called upon to repeat
itself infinitely. There is no entropy — but rather a conservation in closed Sys-
tems, local and global. All this is boscovichian and revolves around the over-
throw of matter: there is no matter, there is only force. That other elements enter into
the new world conception - Schopenhauer, Stewart, Heraclitus - carries no
weight at all against the insight that Boscovich, generally unknown to Nietzsche
scholarship, was the intellectual source of Nietzsche's coricept of force. And äs
has already been proven, this concept is the theoretical forerunner of the theory
of the world äs will to power.

VI. Final Note

Lest I be misconstrued to say that Nietzsche is a mere boscovichian, I would

point out that Nietzsche repeatedly employs the principles of Boscovich äs
regulative principles of research, rather than dogma. At KSA 11, 26 [432]
Nietzsche explicitly states the value in Boscovich's theories to be "Nicht eine
Philosophie als Dogma^ sondern als vorläufige Regulative der Forschung And in
a letter to Gast, Nietzsche describes boscovichian atomism äs "ein Satz, der
jetzt unter mathematisch geschulten Naturforschern als kanonisch gilt. Für die
Praxis der Forschung ist er gleichgültig" (KSB 6 Brief 460: all emphases in
original). Considering the estimations of Boscovich's effect on experimental sci-
ences quoted earlier in this paper, it is reasonable to conclude, quite contrary to

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220 Greg Whitlock

Pctcr Gast, that Nietzsche possessed an acute untimeliness in his instincts con-
cerning the future direction of the sciences.
It is an ironic chapter in this intdlectual history that Lord Kelvin (William
Thomson), whom Nietzsche considers one of the arch-mechanists for his en-
dorsement of the law of entropy, fully acknowledges the importance of Bosco-
vich for the direction of experimental sciences, äs well äs practical discoveries
already employing his ideas, in his "Baltimore Lectures."12
Without acccpting Boscovich's fundamental doctrine that the ultimate atoms
of matter are points endowed each with inertia and with mutual attractions or
repulsions dependent on mutual distances [„..] we can learn something towards
an understanding of the real mölecular structure of matter and some of its
thermo-dynamic properties, by consideratipns of the static and kinematic prop-
erties which it suggests. Hooke's exhibition of the forms of crystals by piles
of globes, Naviers*s and Poisspn's theory of the elasticity of soHds, Maxwell's
and Clausius's work in the kinematic theory of gases, and Tait's more recent
work on the same subject — all developments of Boscovich's theory pure and
simple - amply justify this Statement.
Thus Lord Kelvin would agree with Nietzsche's estimation of Boscovich äs
canonical for the praxis of research, thpugh they obviously come to the same
conclusion from wMdly different backgrounds and unrelated motives. Nonethe-
less it is to Nietzsche's gireat credit that an important scientist such äs Lord
Kelvin would similady evaluate Boscovich's work alrriost contemporaneously
(— the Baltimore Lectures appear in the 1889 Proceedings of the Smithsonian
Institute).13

12
Thomson, William: Baltimore Lectures on Mokcufor Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light. 1904.
13
Thomson, William: Proceedings ofthe Smithsonian Institute. 1889: 435-440.

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