HEllo all,
i’ve been reading the works of Nietzsche and find myself often confused when reading his philosophy about the over man(or super-man if you wish).
i was just waondering if you had any explinations or views on the subject.
thank you in advance.
The “Ubermensch”, or Overman, is Nietzsche’s vision of the most ideal, pure-bred, strong Super-human, whom is able to “survive” anything (sorta).
The universe, Nietzsche might argue, is a hostile enviroment to live in, and most people are “ill-equipped” or unable to overcome much diffucults that they face. The super-human is strong in every way, is physically fit, believes the right things, and thus, is able to overcome much. 
Greetings, simon_n.
Walter Kaufmann’s Nietzsche — Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist ((c) 1968) is the best book on Nietzsche I have found.
From Kaufmann’s extended section on the “Overman”:
“… he is the ‘Dionysian’ man who is depicted under the name of Goethe at the end of the Goetzen-Daemmerung(IX, 49). He has overcome his animal nature, organized the chaos of his passions, sublimated his impulses, and given style to his character — or, as Nietzsche said of Goethe: ‘he disciplined himself to wholeness, he created himself’ and became ‘the man of tolerance, not from weakness but from strength,’, ‘a spirit who has become free’.”
The Ubermensch is one of Netizsche’s most elusive notions. It’s found primarily in the first book of Zarathustra, and is for the most part a medium for Nietzsche to move past the last man. It’s an attempt for Neitzsche to overcome the “human-all-to-human” through a re-evaluation of all values. Rather than becoming a man who is concerned only with his own comfort, the overman is aware of the fact that morals are not “pre-given”, and concequently creates his own.
Nietzsche believes that one man living in the right way can affirm all of existence before and after him. The Ubermensch is the person that will give meaning to the universe.
What do “affirm all of existence” and “give meaning to the universe” mean?
For Nietzsche all humans(specifically christians) are unaware nihilist who’s values devalue themselves. These people have turned life and everything for that matter meaningless with there petty values, and denial of human potential. With the death of god that Nietzsche opens Zarathustra with, man is left with nothing to give him meaning. Here Nietzsche recognizes that unless something changes man will forever be hopeless and pathetic, the “Last man”.
To overcome this nonsense man must overcome his heard instincts, and create beyond himself. Man has to be willing to risk everything for the sake of progression, he has to create values that dominate everything around him. He has to be able to be both great and terrible. To affirm life, one must say “yes” to not only pleasure and happiness, but also pain and suffering. Here we you must understand that for Nietzsche affirming life is acheived through affirming the “will to life” and the “will to power”.
For Nietzsche one can affirm all of known existence that led up to you if all these things: affirming life, revaluing values, not being afriad to be terrible, creating beyond yourself, ect. are achieved. Although it is not wise to put criteria on the Overman, and affirmation of life…
Changing “thou shalt” into “I will”.
not heard, but herd (society)… not only beyond himself but beyond the herd (society) as well…
Nietzsche despised socialists as well as christians for the same reasons…
-Imp
wel, Nietzsche really didn’t like any religions…but he attackted Christianity the most.
You may also want to ask Marshall Mcdanial (a member/moderator here on ILP). He is a big Nietzsche fan, and might have some more insight.
The simplest, most direct answer to who/what is the overman, would be something like: the overman is the one who has overcome = risen over = transcended the things in himself – the things he valued as well as the things he despised – that kept him stunted, divided against himself, ununified.
The overman is a unified personality to whom thoughts are emotions, who has no need to analyze and rationalize because he sees the way things are with a single, acute stroke of perception and in the stroke of perception acts – “right action at cusp,” to take a phrase from Stranger In a Strange Land.
The overman has the ability to create values. I think the reason the overman is so elusive is that it is not a essentialist notion of individuality. There is no essence to the overman, instead the overman creates themself and their values. I think that the overman must aslo be cast into the process of the three metamorphoses.
The overman is life-affirming, creative and is able to resist nihilism.
Yes, quite – the Overman (or as I sometimes revisionarily call it, the Transhuman) is able to create values. The Transhuman is thus the only proper (or possible?) contestant in an agon.
“Umbermenschen”, no man’s able to win over everything. No man’s able to create super values that can make life ideal. A man is a man, under, over, sounds more like genetic mutation to me. The best you can do as a man is to make youself happy. Not to overcome some kind of human flaws. What ever human flaws there might be, you can do nothing about it.
It’s psychological. Nietzsche did not propose untenable physical feats such as jumping over another tight-rope walker:), he proposed psychological exercizes. Surely being about to create your own values instead of following the herd isn’t a mutation. Surely leaving resentment and pettiness underneath you isn’t a mutation.
You’re right, I don’t object much strictly to the idea of overman. I was actually giving another related idea: even the most wise can’t over come what he fundamentally is. You might have seen the post: Are philosophers supposed to go insane? Well, what do you think about Niestche, STD?
Oh by the way, I’m suprised to see someone named “Nihilistic” favouring Niestche.
This is a dialectical position highly dependent on what is meant by “fundamentally is” – rather than a factual statement – and of a dialog I’m not particularly interested in joining.
It’s interesting to contemplate that Nietzsche himself put a lower limit on the transhuman – he (or in some of the Nachlass writings, she) can only come from those who “turned out well” in the first place – wohlgerate? – a classification which automatically excludes anyone who regards the self as fixed and immutable. I suspect that could even be taken as a psychological denoter of ressentiment psychology that comes about when ressentiment is turned against the self.
The overman separates himself from religious and societal morals. He realizes that he has free will in all aspects of his behaviour and that he ultimately decides for himself what is “good” and “evil”. The overman does not look for outside approval or guidance as to the right way to live, and hence must go through the arduous process of thinking for himself. He is not a Superman,he does not have super-human strength,and he could just as easily be a poverty-stricken drunk as he could a leader of men.
You might have seen the post: Are philosophers supposed to go insane?
Either insane or just really eccentric.