The Übermensch (German for "Beyond-Man", "Superman",
"Overman", "Superhuman", "Hyperman",
"Hyperhuman"; German pronunciation: [ˈˀyːbɐmɛnʃ]) is a concept in the
philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. In his 1883 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra
(German: Also sprach Zarathustra), Nietzsche has his character Zarathustra
posit the Übermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself. It is a work of
philosophical allegory, with a structural similarity to the Gathas of
Zoroaster/Zarathustra.
This-worldliness
Nietzsche introduces the concept of the Übermensch in contrast to his
understanding of the other-worldliness of Christianity: Zarathustra proclaims the
Übermensch to be the meaning of the earth and admonishes his audience to ignore
those who promise other-worldly hopes in order to draw them away from the
earth.The turn away from the earth is prompted, he says, by a dissatisfaction
with life—a dissatisfaction that causes one to create another world in which
those who made one unhappy in this life are tormented. The Übermensch is not
driven into other worlds away from this one.
Zarathustra declares that the Christian escape from this world also
required the invention of an eternal soul which would be separate from the body
and survive the body's death. Part of other-worldliness, then, was the
abnegation and mortification of the body, or asceticism. Zarathustra further
links the Übermensch to the body and to interpreting the soul as simply an
aspect of the body.
Death of God and the creation
of new values
Zarathustra ties the Übermensch to the death of God. While this God was
the ultimate expression of other-worldly values and the instincts that gave birth
to those values, belief in that God nevertheless did give meaning to life for a
time. 'God is dead' means that the idea of God can no longer provide values.
With the sole source of values no longer capable of providing those values,
there is a real chance of nihilism prevailing.
Zarathustra presents the Übermensch as the creator of new values. In
this way, it appears as a solution to the problem of the death of God and
nihilism. If the Übermensch acts to create new values within the moral vacuum
of nihilism, there is nothing that this creative act would not justify.
Alternatively, in the absence of this creation, there are no grounds upon which
to criticize or justify any action, including the particular values created and
the means by which they are promulgated.
In order to avoid a relapse into Platonic idealism or asceticism, the
creation of these new values cannot be motivated by the same instincts that
gave birth to those tables of values. Instead, they must be motivated by a love
of this world and of life. Whereas Nietzsche diagnosed the Christian value
system as a reaction against life and hence destructive in a sense, the new
values which the Übermensch will be responsible for will be life-affirming and
creative (see Nietzschean affirmation
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