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Towards a New Envisioning of Ubermensch: a Trans-Nietzschean Response to Nihilism in the Digital Age

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Towards a New Envisioning of Ubermensch: a Trans-Nietzschean Response to Nihilism in the Digital Age TOWARDS A NEW ENVISIONING OF UBERMENSCH: A TRANS-NIETZSCHEAN RESPONSE TO NIHILISM IN THE DIGITAL AGE by CHRISTIAN WIGLEY A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS by research Department of Theology and Religious Studies School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham June 2017 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. DEDICATION Dedicated to N.C., who is valued above all else. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to my parents, Sharon and Clive, and my brother Dom for all the encouragement and support. To Sarah for tolerating my 3am eureka moments and the many hours locked away scribbling with foamy-mouthed abandon. Many thanks to Dr David Cheetham for his guidance throughout, and for the many tangents into literature, film and music. My enormous gratitude to Luke Fox and the staff and students of Leeds Trinity University, who listened to my ramblings with both patience and concern. To all my friends and extended family – thanks for keeping me sane by not asking “how’s the thesis going?” Special thanks to Dr. Milo Aukerman for giving us Hope. CONTENTS Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….... 1 0.1: The Problem with Nietzsche and Nihilism……………………………………….. 1 0.2: Key Notes and Reasons to Study…………………………………………………. 4 0.3: Research Questions……………………………………………………………….. 7 0.4: Conditions and Limitations……………………………………………………….. 8 0.5: Chapter Breakdown……………………………………………………………….. 9 Chapter 1: The Dawn of Nihilism and the Village Atheist as Passive Nihilist….......... 13 1.1: The Importance of the Village Atheist and the Death of God as Signifiers of the Nihilism Problem………………………………………………………………………..... 14 1.2: Decadence, Masks and Esoteric Thinking as Problematic Aspects of Nietzsche’s Work……………………………………………………………………………………… 19 1.2.a: Understanding Nietzschean Decadence as a Tool for Future Thinkers…….. 21 1.2.b: The Problem with Nietzsche’s Esotericism and Masks as Subjective Interpretation and the Benefits of Positive Application………………………………….. 22 1.2.c: Understanding Dionysus, Greek History and Nietzsche’s Philological Background………………………………………………………………………………. 28 1.3: Outlining Nietzsche’s Nihilism and the Problem of Repetition…………………. 34 1.4: Chapter Summary & Conclusion………………………………………………… 42 Chapter 2: Reimagining Nihilism in Postmodernity………………………………….. 44 2.1: Understandings of Nihilism in Postmodernity………………………………….... 44 2.2: Outlining Baudrillard’s Nihilism of the Hyperreal Simulacra…………………… 48 2.2.a: Baudrillard’s Understanding of Signs and Symbolic Exchange in Postmodern Nihilism………...………………………………………………………………………… 51 2.2.b: Using Baudrillardian Semiotics to Understand Postmodern Capitalism as a Repetition of Passive Nihilism……………………………………………………………. 55 2.3: Finding a Positive Inversion in Vattimo’s Nihilism of Passivity…………………. 62 2.3.a: Using Vattimo to Pose the Problem of an Inescapable Postmodern Nihilism.. 64 2.4: Woodward’s Logic of Difference as a Solution to Nihilism……………………… 69 2.5: Chapter Summary & Conclusion…………………………………………………. 72 Chapter 3: The Last Man and Capitalism as the New (a)Theology………………...... 75 3.1: Understand Nietzsche’s Last Man at the End of Postmodernity…………………. 76 3.2: Framing Postmodern Capitalism as a Repetition of the Divine via Goodchild….. 77 3.3.a: Understanding the Inescapability of Nihilism as Semiocapitalism………….. 84 3.3.b: Understanding the Inescapable Nature of Nihilism as Presented in Fisher’s Capitalist Realism………………………………………………………………………. 91 3.4: The Condition of the Last Man and the Dissolution of Self Through Semiocapitalism…………………………………………………………………………… 94 3.5: Berardi and Fisher’s Responses to Semiocapitalism and Capitalist Realism……... 100 3.6: Chapter Summary & Conclusion………………………………………………….. 104 Chapter 4: An Interrogation of Ubermensch as the Transhuman and Artificial Intelligence………………………………………………………………………………... 106 4.1: Interrogating the Roots of Transhumanism and the Links to Nietzsche…………... 107 4.2: The Will to Power vs. Evolutionary Theory in the Development of the Transhuman and Ubermensch…………………………………………………………………………… 112 4.3: The Will to Power and Eternal Return as Key to the Development of Ubermensch... 121 4.4: Proposing Willing Machines: Artificial Intelligence as Ubermensch……………... 132 4.5: The Will to Power Reimagined as the Will to Technology in Kroker…………….. 137 4.6: Chapter Summary & Conclusion…………………………………………………… 143 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………. 146 5.1: Summary…………………………………………………………………………… 146 5.2: Findings…………………………………………………………………………...... 146 5.2.a: Strengths of the Argument…………………………………………………….. 147 5.2.b: Objections and Weaknesses…………………………………………………... 149 5.4: Final Thoughts………………………………………………………………….. 152 Glossary……………………………………………………………………………………. 153 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………….. 154 INTRODUCTION 0.1: The Problem with Nietzsche and Nihilism When Nietzsche declared the death of God his words fell on deaf ears. Dying penniless and insane, it was not until some years later that his writing found a popular audience. Much of Nietzsche’s focus was on the concept of nihilism, a literal understanding of a universe devoid of meaning. Nietzsche's declaration of the death of god was to precede 200 years of nihilism, after which the rise of ubermensch, a unique and abstracted figure capable of overcoming nihilism, was predicted. However, Nietzsche’s writings on ubermensch were slim at best, with only 40 entries for the word appearing throughout his work: 10 in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1 in The Antichrist, and a further 25 scattered throughout unpublished note and journals (Cybulska, 2015: p.2). A general understanding sees ubermensch as a type of post-human figure capable of creating meaning and value, that separates itself from the human by going above and beyond. 1 However, beyond the brief passage below, Nietzsche never really expands upon the concept. We have no solid idea what ubermensch might be. 2 The concept has been variably explored and ignored as it has fallen in and out of favour over the years, and as we 1 In Issue 93 of Philosophy Now, E. Cybulska notes “RJ Hollingdale (in Nietzsche) saw in Übermensch a man who had organised the chaos within; Kaufmann (Nietzsche) a symbol of a man that created his own values, and Carl Jung (Zarathustra’s Seminars) a new ‘God’. For Heidegger it represented humanity that surpassed itself, whilst for the Nazis it became an emblem of the master race.” 2 In Beyond Good & Evil, Nietzsche refers to Alcibiades, Julius Caesar, Hohenstaufen Friedrich II, and da Vinci as “marvellous in-comprehensible and unfathomable men destined for victory and the seduction of others,” a clear sign that he believes there are men capable of greatness (Nietzsche, 1973: p.122). However, whilst he expresses admiration for these types of victorious human, they remain entirely that – human. For this reason we accept them as sources of inspiration, but not as examples of figures being close to attaining ubermensch. 1 will see, some current interpretations weigh heavily on developments of technology. In order for us to develop our own contemporary understanding of what ubermensch could be, we must turn to Nietzsche’s initial writing on the subject. We are first introduced to the idea of the ubermensch early in Nietzsche's 1883 novel, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, where the eponymous character addresses a town crowd upon his arrival: “I teach you the Superman. Man is something that should be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? All creatures hitherto have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great tide, and return to the animals rather than overcome man? What is the ape to men? A laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment. And just so shall man be to the Superman: a laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment.” (Nietzsche, 2003: pp. 41-42) Viewing the ubermensch contextually we may see it as Nietzsche's most important response to nihilism, so much so that it is “the meaning of the earth” (Nietzsche, 2003, p. 42). In using the word 'meaning', Nietzsche is bravely suggesting an ultimate answer. This is a concept we must treat with some scrutiny. 2 For Nietzsche, to overcome nihilism we must move forwards and create ourselves again. In drawing comparisons to apes and animals, Nietzsche casts an unfavourable view of humanity as something inferior. In fact, creatures are capable of creation, but that is not to say that in creating, creatures have moved beyond their own shortcomings. It is a backhanded remark aimed at knocking modern man from his pedestal. Even as an atheist Nietzsche is not holding mankind as an answer, but as a problem to be overcome. As such the ubermensch would be the ultimate existent form – one that surpasses everything to crown itself. It would quite literally be the most unnatural of things, yet for Nietzsche it would still be of the earth. The onlookers are begged to “remain true to the earth” (Nietzsche, 2003: p.42), suggesting that even if
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