CHAPTER 9

NIETZSCHE’S ÜBERMENSCH

A CONTINUOUS THREAD Nietzsche’s philosophy is generally considered to have undergone a series of transformations and thematic shifts throughout his writing life, although there are some consistent threads throughout his philosophy. This chapter argues that one such consistent thread is the notion of ‘overcoming’ inherent in his formulation of Übermensch. It can be described in terms of personal challenge and agonistic contest – incorporation rather than rejection of ‘otherness’. It provides a powerful metaphor for education, signifying a level of development beyond the currently known, and promoting life as subjective challenge and self-determination in relation to the social and cultural world in which one is embedded. A significant feature of the ‘overcoming’ process is that of cumulative building rather than binary rejection, so it is important to include the early influences on Nietzsche in any analysis of Übermensch, with particular reference to those educators he saw as significant in his own development. His early period was influenced by, and to some extent dedicated to, Wagner and Schopenhauer. Wagner was a key figure in the production of his first book The Birth of Tragedy, in which his focus was on Greek tragedy and art as providing the possibility of redemption from the nihilism of western culture. The early Nietzsche admired Wagner for his elevation of art and the culture of the pre- Socratic Greeks. Nietzsche believed Greek culture incorporated all aspects of life, not only beauty and tranquillity, but also the wild side of human nature, a wildness that could be indulged in and represented most fully through art: “the orgiastic element as it is lived in blissful raptures, in the mixture of pain and lust, of joy and horror, and in the self-obliterating drunkenness of Dionysian festivals. In them the conventional barriers and boundaries of existence are broken, so that the individual seems to melt into the totality of nature again” (Salomé, 1988, p. 39). The Dionysian was inherent in Schopenhauer’s formulation of the will – a blind, striving force as fundamental to life. Nietzsche’s early essays eulogised Schopenhauer as a genius, an untimely man and his educator: a figure to be emulated. Much later, Nietzsche was to indulge in strong self-criticism for believing that the world could be transformed through art, and for his naïve praise of both Wagner and Schopenhauer. However, his later attempts to distance himself can be seen as indicators of his own philosophical progression and do not detract from the intensity of his earlier admiration for these inspirational figures. In fact, one commentator (Salomé, 1988) suggests that his later philosophy was a return to

149 CHAPTER 9 his earlier views, albeit in a different form. His notion of the ‘releasing redeemer’ evolved from the ‘genius’, to later take the form of ‘scientist’ and then ‘philosopher’ as the heroic figure capable of transcending cultural limitations. Nietzsche’s middle period is often described as a positivistic phase, in which his quest for knowledge was a focus on reason and science, and a turning away from his earlier Romanticism. Rationality began to supersede genius as a desirable quality (DB V §548). His analysis of the development of genius suggests it is learnable through disciplined workmanship (HAH I §163); through painstaking attention to the constituent parts rather than a focus on the ‘effect of a dazzling whole’. He sees as erroneous belief or religious superstition the idea that genius is of supra-human origin, proposing instead that great spirits should acquire an insight into the nature and origin of their powers as merely particular configurations of purely human qualities. These qualities include undiminishing energy, resolute application to individual goals, great personal courage, and the good fortune to have had the finest teachers, models and methods (HAH I §164): Do not talk about giftedness, inborn talents! One can name great men of all kinds who were very little gifted. They acquired greatness, became geniuses (as we put it), through qualities the lack of which no one who knew what they were would boast of: they all possessed that seriousness of the efficient workman which first learns to construct the parts properly before it ventures to fashion a great whole (HAH I §163). This period of Nietzsche’s writing is characterised perhaps most famously for the emergence of his claim that ‘God is dead’ (GS §108; §125; §343; §344). The proclamation serves as a blatant challenge to fundamentalist thinking, as a negation of faith in some other life than this, as a rejection of any transcendental purpose for the universe, as a disbelief in eternal life, as a lack of faith in morality (GS §343) and as a ‘de-deification of nature’ (GS §109). The thought is put succinctly by Heidegger: That suprasensory world of purposes and norms no longer quickens and supports life. That world has itself become lifeless, dead … that is the meaning of the word ‘God is dead,’ thought metaphysically (Heidegger, 1977c, pp. 98-99). The death of God is emphasised in Zarathustra’s announcement of the overman as the ‘meaning of the earth’ and as an overcoming of humanity as we now know it: Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth! I beseech you, my brothers, remain faithful to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying and poisoned themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so let them go (Z I, Prologue §3). Nietzsche’s theme of eternal recurrence also arises in his middle period, interwoven thematically with his Übermensch and his ‘death of god’ as an affirmation of the present world. Übermensch is the type of being that affirms life

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