Nietzsche's Constructions of Power

Abstract

Power is inextricably linked to business rhetoric and praxis. Given Nietzsche's prominence in modern and postmodern thought, his constructions of power are relevant for understanding broader implications of ethics in the context of business. In this paper, the corpus linguistics techniques of type-token ratios (TTR), sentiment analysis, clustering, and concordancing enabled an assessment of Nietzsche's uses of power and the establishment of points of consistency and divergence among his fourteen major philosophical works. The results suggest that Nietzsche's posthumous manuscript, The Will to Power, is significantly different from the other 13 works in terms of its focus on power. Additionally, his later works are richer in textual variety (as measured by TTR) than his early and middle works. Through the concordance analysis, the authors identified themes in Nietzsche's use of power, which provides a fulcrum for understanding potential linkages between Nietzschean power as well as his popularized, social-media presence, and implications for international business ethics.