FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Friedrich Nietzsche on the death of god and the superman

Friedrich Nietzsche on the death of god and the superman

Introduction

Nietzsche's philosophical system rotates around a trinity, the three doctrines of will-to-power, superman, and eternal recurrence. These three teachings are treated in some detail in his greatest book, Thus Spake Zarathustra. We have had opportunity to explain the will-to-power under several rubrics, but it now remains for us to look carefully into the superman and eternal recurrence.

Nietzsche opposed most of the commanding ideals of his own generation (Hunt 1985, 462), especially the notion of equality. Unlike most Victorians, he did not consider his age one of automatic progress or inevitable enlightenment. On the contrary, he saw it as possibly the final episode in the dwarfing of man, the leveling and mediocritization of humans that had begun with Socrates and Christ. It simply highlights the major facts of enlightmnet. Hence, against the contemporary ideals of equality and progress Nietzsche pitted the counterideals of the superman and everlasting recurrence.

The Superman

Most Nietzsche scholars prefer to render the crucial term Übermensch as "superman" or "overman." Some prefer just to leave the word in the original since we really have no good English equivalent. Those who prefer "overman" complain that "superman" has an unfortunate connection with the popular comic strip character who hails from the planet Krypton. It should be noted, however, that English translators rendered Übermensch as "superman" years before the appearance of the comic strip character. No matter which word is used, much additional explanation is needed to clarify what Nietzsche meant by the term. (Hunt 1985, 461) Kaufmann is certainly correct to connect the Übermensch with Überwindung overcoming. The first speech the prophet Zarathustra made to the people began.

The first time Nietzsche ever used the term Übermensch was in a key aphorism of Gay Science, where he criticized the Jewish ideal of monotheism and warned that it could make man as stagnant as most other species. Against the Hebrew ideal of one "normal God" and a "normal man" he placed the Greek ideal of Freigeisterei und Vielgeisterei the free spirited and many-spirited mentality. The Greeks had men, to be sure, but they had in addition a delightful menagerie of Übermenschen, Untermenschen, and Nebenmenschen overmen, undermen, and paramen. In fine, the Greeks rejected the idea of equality or conformity. Nietzsche longed for the return of such a culture where we could once again afford "the luxury of individuals." By stifling this individualism, monotheism was perhaps the greatest danger that has yet confronted humanity.

With the modern collapse of Christian monotheism the way has been opened up for a reconsideration of superior men. Without Christian theism as a buttress the modern doctrine of equality appears to be a great impertinence, an emerging reality of self-supervision. All human are equal before God, but this God died. Since God has become unbelievable, belief in equality has become equally impossible for a rational person. We must even increase the gap between ranks to intensify the "pathos of ...