Nietzsche’s Superman: Redefining Humanity and the Will to Power
The Idea of Superman
The concept of the Superman (Übermensch) arises from the will to power, exalting human creativity as an affirmation of earthly life. This affirmation is eternal, reflecting the will to power at its highest point: to love life so intensely that one desires to relive it endlessly.
Man as a Bridge to the Superman
Man is not merely a bridge to the Superman; this being will possess new virtues, new policies, and new values. The great preparation that enables man to overcome himself is the training that leads to Nietzsche’s Superman.
Nietzsche’s work frequently references the Superman, particularly in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which outlines three metamorphoses of the spirit:
- The Camel: Represents the individual who exercises restraint and obeys blindly.
- The Lion: Symbolizes the great rebel (nihilistic), seeking freedom.
- The Child: Represents the ability to overcome self-sufficiency, live free from prejudice, and create new values.
The superior man does not believe in equality, embracing hierarchy instead, believing that equality leads to a morality of the herd. The superior man is a prophetic vision of certain aspects of post-capitalist society in Europe. From the third state (the child) emerges the Superman, leading to a new, free, and creative humanity.
Characteristics of the Superman
- Lust for Life: The Superman is concerned above all with life without hindrance, valuing the life of the body, health, pleasure, passion, violence, victory, and success. The virtues are loving physical strength, power, and defiance.
- Overcoming: Overcoming traditional Western Christian morality, the Superman is not subject to any moral precept, existing beyond good and evil. The Superman represents the greatest potential of human being.
- Revaluation of Values: The Superman has changed not only values but the very form of assessment, i.e., how to live, and laughs at traditional values.
- Rejection of Metaphysics: Far from the idea of God, the Superman is true to the earth, focusing on the present and forgetting spiritual musings.
- Will to Power: The Superman lives the will to power, which is the result of the will to live, guided by the desire to dominate and be master, not slave.
- Eternal Recurrence: The Superman embraces the eternal recurrence, wanting the future and wanting to relive everything that has already existed.
The New Vision of Man
- Man is miserable because they despise the earth, the body, and instinct, existing as the medium between the beast and the Superman. It is an intermediate step between animality and superhumanity.
- Man is a flawed being: the only animal in the universe that has not yet consolidated, still in the process of becoming. Man is at risk of being overcome or returning to primitive animality.
- Man is somewhere in between: an unfinished being, a bridge to the Superman, who must overcome and become the Superman. Man is not static but endowed with enormous creative capacity.
- Life has enormous, expansive strength. The human species is endowed with the expansive force of life, in a constant evolutionary process, unfinished, driving it towards higher species (Darwin).
Sense of Challenge
For man to become Superman, he must overcome traditional, decadent, alienated morality and reach a new morality in accordance with his nature. This urge to improve should drive God from within, overcoming the idea of God: God is dead.