Nietzsche’s Superman and the Transmutation of Values
Transmutation of Values
The Superman must exercise their will to power and has undertaken the task of transmuting values. The Superman has to break with the old anti-vital values. The Superman is the value of the present, the here and now. Because God is dead, only the physical and material remain. The will to power is the desire to express life. The values of Christianity are, for Nietzsche, the values of the weak, the slaves. Nietzsche is opposed to the value of equality because we all try to be better, to surpass ourselves. Thus, if we accept equality, we will not accept individuals that stand out and will not allow excellence to manifest. According to Nietzsche, we all have a gift that makes us excellent, thereby allowing us to evolve. Exalting that life in us is excellence. Nietzsche is also against compassion. We feel compassion for individuals with some shortcomings. For Nietzsche, we should not complain, but we should create an environment in which individuals lacking the ability to surpass themselves may overcome their limitations. He also criticizes humility because, for Nietzsche, it is a way of saying that we should not protrude. These are the moral values of the slave because they prevent us from evolving; they are values that oppress a sickly life. Life is vitality, energy, self-improvement, and we do not find these in the values of the morality of slaves.
What were the prevailing values in the Greek world? The predominant values were courage, fighting, great heroes, and characters like those who speak in the Odyssey. The weak end up imposing their morality (it is a kind of revenge). Therefore, vital values must be obtained.
What does the Superman rely on to perform this transmutation? They rely on the will to power. What type of power is he talking about? The power of creativity.
Eternal Return
The literal definition of eternal return is: the constant repetition of the same. This idea of cyclicity can be found in Greek philosophers like Heraclitus, for example. Heraclitus believed that there are cycles; everything is destroyed and reborn again. Nietzsche believed that there are individual and cosmic cycles. These cycles, for Nietzsche, are a moral obligation. He proposes that each moment of our life must be lived as if it had to be repeated countless times. If we accept this, we all strive to live the best possible experience to the maximum in the here and now. According to Nietzsche, if we are mentally prepared for everything to repeat, we will seek to live in the best possible way. We have to live intensely in the present. What counts is not where we arrive, but the way we do it. That is, Nietzsche is against goals because these project us into the future and prevent us from living life intensely. While living life intensely, we are also affected by the weight of the past. The past seems unchanged, but according to Nietzsche, we can get rid of this burden so we can change the meaning we give to facts. The sense of the events depends on us, so we can release the past by rewriting it, rereading it. Thus, to live more intensely, we rewrite the past and avoid big goals. There are no facts, only interpretations.