The
concept of the —(''homo superior''; equivalent English: "Superman", "superior man", "overman", "
super-human" or "
trans-human"; ''see
below'')—was expounded by
Friedrich Nietzsche in the 1883 book ''
Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', whose eponymous protagonist contends that "man is something which ought to be overcome". Zarathustra thus announces the coming of the Übermensch, which must succumb to
nihilism in order to overcome it. The ''Übermensch'' is contrasted with the exemplar of the ''
Last Man''. Whereas Nietzsche considered there to be no examples of an ''Übermensch'' in his time, via Zarathustra, he declared that there were many examples of ''Last Men''. In his 1930s courses on Nietzsche,
Martin Heidegger highlighted how the concept of the ''Übermensch'' was intrinsically connected to the ''
will to power'' and ''
the thought of eternal recurrence ''. In this sense, the ''Übermensch'' may be said to be the event of thinking the Eternal Return, and therefore of overcoming nihilism.
Zarathustra assigns to his contemporary civilization the task of preparing the venue for the ''Übermensch''. Mankind could prepare this coming of the Übermensch through the following steps:
# By using his ''
will to power'' ''destructively'', in the rejection of, and rebellion against, societal ideals and moral codes.
# By using his ''will to power'' ''creatively'', in overcoming
nihilism and re-evaluating old ideals or creating new ones.
# By a continual process of ''self-overcoming''.
Nietzsche criticized the concepts of
soul, personal
consciousness, and the "
ego". His criticisms of the
metaphysics of substance and of the
subject, whom he identified as a "grammatical fiction," opposed any individualist interpretation, which would render the ''Übermensch'' a heroic figure.
[1]
Therefore, the ''Übermensch'' also has been interpreted as a temporary state, or event, of the multiple
wills to power composing this "individual fiction". Thus interpreted, the ''Übermensch'' is neither person nor
substance, but the existential process of overcoming both oneself and nihilism. It should be stressed that if the coming of the Übermensch was a task for times to come, and thus engaged a responsibility of some kind, Nietzsche criticized any conception of freedom as "
free will": it is not simply a matter of each one "choosing" to become a Übermensch—Nietzsche, who admired
Spinoza, a philosopher who also criticized this conception of freedom, didn't believe in such a "free choice"—but rather of creating the conditions making the Übermensch's coming possible. Adding to the interpretative difficulty surrounding the ''Übermensch'' concept is the relationship between the views of Zarathustra, the book's protagonist, and the views of Nietzsche, himself.
Origins
Nietzsche was aware of
Herbert Spencer's concept of "
survival of the fittest." Spencer held that it was only adaptation, not morality or divine guidance, that enabled some species, institutions and people to triumph over others. Nietzsche's concept of the Übermensch is in part related to his understanding of the body and of humankind. Thus, he criticized Spencer's assertion according to which species adapted themselves to their environment, claiming this was only a reactive form of action.
[2] This criticism of adaptation as a reactive force was enforced by Nietzsche's criticism of the "will to life" (and, for example, of
Spinoza's ''
conatus'', or tendency to live of every being
[3]) on behalf of his "hypothesis of
the will to power". Nietzsche also criticized any
teleological conception of history, which identified the end of each thing with its origins (hence, the eye would have been created to see, and animalkind to have the human being as its perfection).
[4] Thus, his conception of the Übermensch should also be thought as opposed to the conception of mankind as the ultimate word of evolution.
Aspects of the Übermensch
The will to destruction
Nietzsche's motivation for claiming that
God is dead was the destruction of the
Christian conscience: that is, destroying the God-centered way of thinking, and the fateful will to break out. Only by breaking out of the
idealistic norms — and overcoming
nihilism — can one become an ''Übermensch'', literally someone who is "beyond human", he wrote. According to Nietzsche's ''
On the Genealogy of Morals'', Christianity is based on a doctrine of remedy and punishment.
Zarathustra was the man who announced the coming of the ''Übermensch'' to the world.
Further, as Nietzsche put it,
asceticism — religions positing a "next life" more important than the earthly, and especially the teachings of
Plato that point to a nihilistic "beyond" —oppose a belief in God against objective, material reality. Nietzsche opposes a "slave morality" and a "master morality"; both, he said, can coexist within a person.
Re-evaluating or destroying old ideals
Once man has undergone the process of denying God ('Omnis determinatio est negatio'), he begins a journey towards becoming Übermensch. The humans are alone and, contrary to absolving themselves of responsibility by positing a deity, they must create their own new moral ideals.
In establishing new ideals, man now does not rank them according to
transcendental aspects ("Where from" and "What for") because this would again aim towards beyond.
Instead, there are no absolute ideals any more but only an interpretation of them in which moral ideals are the most important ones.
Overcoming nihilism
The most difficult step according to Nietzsche's
immanent philosophy is basing one's entire life in this world. Placing belief or faith in anything transcendent is nihilistic and would lead to the failure of man's attempt to become ''Übermensch''. The idea of God is a quiet temptation. In overcoming nihilism, man undergoes three phases, all of which can be compared to the 'three metamorphoses of the spirit' as outlined in ''Also Sprach Zarathustra'':
★ The immoralist phase: he dares the jump away from the Christian dogmas to a space without God but wonders how life without Him can be possible. He 'balances over an empty space'.
★ The free thinker phase: man is already fully aware of his freedoms and knows how to use them. He knows 'I am free when I am with myself'.
★ The ''Übermensch'': lives according to the principles of his
Will to Power which ends in complete independence :
:"It is here and nowhere else that one must make a start to comprehend what Zarathustra wants: this type of man that he conceives, conceives reality as it is: it is strong enough for it—, it is not estranged or removed from it, it is reality itself and exemplifies all that is terrible and questionable in it, only in that way can man attain greatness..."
[5]
In short, Nietzsche stated that the goal of mankind is to produce a being who can take absolute responsibility for himself, and that this can only be achieved by transcending nihilism, represented most prominently by Christian and platonic ideals.
It should be emphasized that the obstacles in becoming ''Übermensch'' are essentially internal, a matter of overcoming oneself (a notion also appearing in Christianity, though there the goal is submission to God). In Nietszche's words, the ''Übermensch'' must be "judge and avenger of [his] own law." It is not a question of dominating others.
Common misconceptions
The personification of the Übermensch
According to Nietzsche, he himself was not an ''Übermensch''; neither was the fictional character Zarathustra, who only announced the coming of the ''Übermensch''. He explicitly denied that any true Übermenschen had yet existed. Furthermore, his criticisms of consciousness and of the subject, tied to his criticisms of the traditional understanding of will as a "faculty", makes any individualist interpretation of Nietzsche extremely hazardous. It is doubtful to make of the Übermensch a "person", whether it be a person already dead or a person yet to live. This same criticisms of a conscious subject lead
Martin Heidegger to his concept of the ''
Dasein''.
Nevertheless, Nietzsche did have an admiration for various figures, including writers such as
William Shakespeare, artists like
Leonardo da Vinci and
Michelangelo,
Jesus Christ and also political figures such as
Napoleon Bonaparte and
Julius Caesar; even
Socrates or
Plato have been admired by Nietzsche. However, he admired above all others
Goethe. Nietzsche praised
Ancient Greece and
Renaissance Italy as cultures which produced more creative individuals than exist in present society. As had
Tocqueville done before him, he criticized modernity, assimilated to democracy, claiming it was characterized by a tendency to equality which uniformized all beings and ultimately led to nihilism.
[6]
Misidentification with Nazis and biological reductionism
''See
Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche#Social and political views''.
The biologicalisation of the concept of ''Übermensch'' was criticized by Nietzsche in
Ecce Homo, "Why I Write Such Good Books", § 1.
Many high-ranking
Nazis, including
Alfred Baeumler, admired parts of Nietzsche's philosophy and sought to adapt it to fit their own visions of super-human beings and an
Aryan "master race" (
Herrenvolk). The biologicalisation of the concept of ''Übermensch'' was criticized by
Martin Heidegger's ''Nietzsche'',
[7] because this biological interpretation significantly departed from Nietzsche's original ideas. In ''
The Case of Wagner'' and ''
Nietzsche Contra Wagner'', he bitterly criticized the German artist, partly because of
Wagner's
pan-Germanism and
antisemitism. It is widely thought that Nietzsche's sister,
Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, who was an avowed anti-semite, contributed greatly to this misconception by deliberately misrepresenting his work. Philologists
Giorgio Colli and
Mazzino Montinari proved this in the 1960s when editing, for the first time ever, Nietzsche's complete posthumous fragments. The Nazis themselves reinterpreted and appropriated elements of many philosophical and religious texts, including Nietzsche's.
Misleading translation
The translation of ''Übermensch'' as "Superman" may compound the misconception. ''
Über'' is, among other things, the German equivalent of the prefix trans-. It has also gained a colloquial use in English with (sometimes spelled "ueber" or "uber"). Examples of prefixed words in German with the "trans-" meaning are: ''Überwindung'' ("overcoming"), ''überstehen''/''durchstehen'' ("come through"/"get over"), ''übersetzen'' ("literal:"over setting"/"translate"/"take across"). Some scholars therefore prefer the translation "overman", not simply because this best captures the other meaning of ''über'' ("
transman" refers to transgender in English) but because the point of the ''Übermensch'' is that man needs to ''overcome''.
Furthermore, the German
adjective ''übermenschlich'' (above/beyond human) is common and used in contexts such as "''mit übermenschlichen Kräften gelang es ihm…''" ("with a force no human being is capable of he managed to…" or "with superhuman force…"), the connotation is that of leaving the human sphere. Parallel constructions can be found in ''übernatürlich'' ("no longer natural", "transcendental"), ''überirdisch'' ("heavenly", literally "unearthly"). "Superman" lacks the German connotation of a sphere beyond human knowledge and power.In addition, ''Mensch'' is less specifically male than the English "man", closer at times to the English "human". ''Mensch'' is to be understood as a neutral form of a noun.
In popular culture
The inescapable reference to the Übermensch is the American comic book character
Superman; however, this comic book character (despite having tremendous physical and mental capabilities) is closer to a Last Man than an Übermensch, in that the character enforces and conforms strongly to pre-existing American cultural and especially moral norms.
★
Fyodor Dostoevsky, in his 1866 novel ''
Crime and Punishment'', anticipated the Übermensch concept: the book's main character, Raskolnikov, justifies an act of murder he commits by deciding that he, as a superior being, is not bound by the normal rules of morality. Raskolnikov identifies
Napoleon as having been an Übermensch and seeks to emulate him, though his attempt fails - he is full of scruples and remorse, and in the end he finds solace in
Christian morality.
★ Chester Coote, a character in the
H. G. Wells novel ''
Kipps'', negatively references the Overman theory.
★
George Bernard Shaw's 1903 play ''
Man and Superman'' is a reference to the archetype; its main character considers himself an untameable revolutionary, above the normal concerns of humanity.
★ The television series ''
Andromeda'' has characters called "
Nietzscheans" who have applied
selective breeding,
genetic engineering and
nano-technology to themselves in order to become a race of Übermenschen. Those who distrust them refer to these Nietzscheans derogatively as "Ubers".
★
Jack London is considered to have intended to his character
Wolf Larsen, the sea captain in his book ''
The Sea Wolf'', as "an attack on Nietzsche's super-man philosophy".
★ In real life,
Leopold and Loeb committed an act of murder in 1924 partly out of a similar Übermensch-like conception of themselves.
[8] Their story has been fictionalized many times, including in the
Alfred Hitchcock movie ''
Rope'' and the 2002 movie ''
Murder by Numbers''.
★ In
C. S. Lewis's
Narnia book ''
The Magician's Nephew'', the character of
Uncle Andrew sends his nephew,
Digory Kirke, into an unknown world. Uncle Andrew had tricked Digory's friend,
Polly Plummer, into putting on a yellow ring which transports her to the "
Wood between the Worlds." Not knowing where she has gone, Digory is incensed by his uncle's behavior. He tells his uncle to bring her back to which his uncle replies that "rules of that sort, however excellent they may be for little boys—and servants—and women—and even people in general, can't possibly be expected to apply to profound students and great thinkers and sages. No, Digory. Men like me who possess hidden wisdom are freed from common rules." (p. 16, New York: Macmillian Publishing, 1988)
★ The
Space Trilogy, also by C. S. Lewis, offers several fictional treatments of the Übermensch. In
Perelandra,
Professor Weston, or the "Un-man" as he later becomes known, is a naturalist and renowned physicist who gives up morality in favour of "preaching the gospel of life itself.” Over the course of the first two books, his soul rots from the inside out and his body becomes a living corpse possessed by
Satan. In ''
That Hideous Strength'', the characters Frost and Wither, a pair of historical materialists who as part of their philosophies reject morality, follow a similar arc, and are also critical treatments of the Übermensch. Lewis may have based Weston, Frost, and Wither in part on Nietzsche himself.
★ ''
The X-Files'' episode "
Arcadia" features a creature called "Übermenscher".
★
Grant Morrison's comics, particularly
The Invisibles and
The Filth, frequently feature characters and storylines preoccupied with a hypothetical evolution beyond the human form. The Invisibles character Jack Frost, in particular, can be seen as a
Zarathustra-like agent of human evolution. However, many villains in the same comic are also avowedly transhumanist.
★ In
Revolutionary Girl Utena Tsuwabuki's duel chorus,"Absolute Conic Egg Algebra", has a whole verse about Übermensch.
Notes
1. See ''Beyond Good and Evil'', §16 and 17 of the first section (etext available here), where he criticized Descartes's ''cogito''; this is the Helen Zimmern translation, as published in ''The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche'', 1909-1913. See also ''On the Genealogy of Morals'', I, §13.
"16. (...) the philosopher must say to himself: "When I analyze the process that is expressed in the sentence, 'I think,' I find a whole series of daring assertions, the argumentative proof of which would be difficult, perhaps impossible: for instance, that it is ''I'' who think, that there must necessarily be something that thinks, that thinking is an activity and operation on the part of a being who is thought of as a cause, that there is an 'ego,' and finally, that it is already determined what is to be designated by thinking—that I KNOW what thinking is. For if I had not already decided within myself what it is, by what standard could I determine whether that which is just happening is not perhaps 'willing' or 'feeling'? In short, the assertion 'I think,' assumes that I COMPARE my state at the present moment with other states of myself which I know, in order to determine what it is; on account of this retrospective connection with further 'knowledge,' it has, at any rate, no immediate certainty for me." (...)" (§16 of the first section of ''Beyond Good and Evil'')
and also:
17. With regard to the superstitions of logicians, I shall never tire of emphasizing a small, terse fact, which is unwillingly recognized by these credulous minds—namely, that a thought comes when "it" wishes, and not when "I" wish; so that it is a ''PERVERSION'' of the facts of the case to say that the subject "I" is the condition of the predicate "think." ''One'' thinks; but that this "one" is precisely the famous old "ego," is, to put it mildly, only a supposition, an assertion, and assuredly not an "immediate certainty." After all, one has even gone too far with this "one thinks"—even the "one" contains an ''INTERPRETATION'' of the process, and does not belong to the process itself. One infers here according to the usual grammatical formula: "To think is an activity; every activity requires an agency that is active; consequently" ... (§17 of the first section of ''Beyond Good and Evil'')
2. See ''On the Genealogy of Morals'', Part II, §13
3. It could be argued that this criticism of Spinoza — an author admired by Nietzsche — find its origins in a misunderstanding of Spinoza's conception of the ''conatus''. Nietzsche's point is to underline that life is not the ultimate value of being.
4. ''On the Genealogy of Morals'', II, 13
5. Ecce Homo, « Why I Am a Destiny, § 5. ».
6. Pamornpol Jinatichra, Nietzsche’s idea of an overman and life from his point of view, personal page on Stanford.edu. Accessed 29 August 2006.
7. Heidegger's defense of Nietzsche against Alfred Baeumler's ideological interpretation would later be used by Heidegger's partisans (notably his ex-students the Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre, who had participated in anti-Nazi resistance) to discharge him of accusations concerning his ties to the Nazi regime and the NSDAP
8. "Nietzsche inspired Hitler and other killers", Court TV Crime Library
See also
★
Nazism and race
★
Great man theory
External links
★
Martin Heidegger and Nietzsche’s Overman: Aphorisms on the Attack
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