The Will to Code: Nietzsche and the Democratic Impulse

This paper examines the moral claims of free software through the lens of a (re)reading of their theory and practices together with aspects of Nietzsche’s works. It seeks to make a preliminary sketch of how such an analysis might draw attention to oft-neglected aspects of the free software and open source movements. Does an aristocratic moment within the free software (and more generally the free culture) movements point toward a necessary revitalisation of the res publica and should we view this movement as central to the democratic project rather than anathema to it.
To refrain from injury, from violence, from exploitation, and put one’s will on a par with that of others: this may result in a certain rough sense in good conduct among individuals when the necessary conditions are given (namely, the actual similarity of the individuals in amount of force and degree of worth, and their co-relation within one organisation). As soon, however, as one wished to take this principle more generally, and if possible even as the fundamental principle of society, it would immediately disclose what it really is – namely, a Will to the denial of life, a principle of dissolution and decay. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, §259, by David M. Berry & Lee EvansUniversity of Sussex., Falmer, Brighton. BN1 9RH.