Ubermensch

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra (in German, Also sprach Zarathustra), the GermanphilosopherFriedrich Nietzscheexplains the steps through which man can become an Übermensch (help·info) (homo superior; the equivalent English translation would be 'super-human'):

1. By his will to power, manifested destructively in the rejection of, and rebellion against, modern ideals and moral codes;
2. By his will to power, manifested creatively in overcoming nihilismand re-evaluating old ideals or creating new ones.
3. By a continual process of self-overcoming.

The Übermensch was contrasted by Nietzsche with the exemplar of the Last Man, who is the antithesisof the Übermensch. Whereas Nietzsche considered there to be no examples of an Übermensch in his time, he declared there were many examples of Last Men.

The will to destruction

Nietzsche's motivation for the claim 'God is dead' is the destruction of the Christianconscience, i.e., a God-centered way of thinking, and the fateful will to break out. His symbols for this are flameand thunder. Only by breaking out of the idealistic norms one can become Übermensch, which literally means "beyond human." The initial point of destruction is the church, which is, according to Nietzsche, the exact opposite of what Jesuspreached. The reason for this is a process initiated by the apostle Paul, which caused a transfiguration of Jesus' teachings to a remedy-punishment doctrine. Zarathustrawas the prototype for Nietzsche's Übermensch.

Furthermore, asceticism, religions that hold a "next life" to be more important than this one, and especially the teachings of Platopoint towards a nihilistic beyond, which places the belief in God in opposition to reality. While this does not disprove God's existence, it does mark the belief in God as running counter to Nietzsche's ethical valuing of the immediate world.

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 through the postulation of 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 is basing one's entire life into this world. Placing belief or faith in anything transcendental 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:

• 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 Powerwhich ends in complete independence.

In short, Nietzsche stated that everyone should take absolute responsibility for their own actions in the world, and this can only be achieved by an overthrow of Christian ideals, according to Nietzsche.

However, another problem is that when the Ubermensch lives according to his Will to Power. If he desires to control others, they will also desire to break free. If he successfully controls others, their children will desire to break free. A person who attempts to gain absolute, complete will to power, will bring only destruction. It will merely create an endless cycle.

Common misconceptions

Misidentification with Nazis

The most common misconception about the Übermensch is that it is equivalent to the ideals of Nazism, and that it is related or equal to the concept of Herrenvolk("master race"). The concept of racial supremacy or antisemitism is absent in Nietzsche. It is widely believed that Nietzsche's sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, who married an anti-Semite, contributed greatly to this misconception by deliberately misrepresenting his work, and the Nazis themselves reinterpreted and incorporated hodgepodge elements of many philosophical and religious texts, including Nietzsche's.

Nietzsche had an admiration of Napoleon Bonaparteand Julius Caesar, and advocated an authoritarian united Europe.

Misleading loan-translation

The translation of Übermensch as "superman" may compound the misconception. Über can have a variety of meanings, as in Überwindung ("overcoming"), überstehen/durchstehen ("come through"/"get over"), übersetzen ("translate"/"take across"). Some scholars therefore prefer the translation as Overman, since the point of the Übermensch is that man needs to overcome himself.

The German adverb "übermenschlich" 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 neuter form of a noun.

Popular elaboration of the concept

The term has loosed its bounds and left the philosophic roundtable to go out into the general public. The inescapable reference is the American comic book character Superman. Care must be taken when one comes across the word in literary usage. The British novelist Bulwer-Lyttonis said to have created the first superman who is not evil; by this it was meant that his character was surpassing the ordinary man like the Übermensch, not with impossible physical powers.

Confusion with scientific ideologies

Nietzsche's writings are spiritual and philosophical in character, and do not state that the central ideas are biological, psychological, sociological, or sociobiological. His ideas have no firm connection to the claim of superiority of any particular raceor ethnicity, and thus they are not racistin themselves.

External links

• Dialogue on the concept of Übermensch in Nietzsche's works
• The 'Superman', the Overman or Übermensch
• Nietzsche?s idea of an overman and life from his point of viewda:Overmenneske

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubermensch Wikipedia article Ubermensch.