Nietzsche’s idea of an overman and life from hispoint of view
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Nietzsche's idea of "theoverman" (Ubermensch) is one of the most significant concept in histhinking. Even though it is mentioned very briefly only in the prologue of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, it might besensible to conceive that Nietzsche had something in his mind about how a manshould be more than just human-all-too-human,regardless if he was one or not. All these ideas had been pondered on anddeveloped though all his works. The concept then seems to reveal much about theway Nietzsche saw life. This essay will attempt on seeing through, as much aspossible, the idea of overman by Nietzsche and life from the point of view ofan overman.
An overman as described byZarathustra, the main character in ThusSpoke Zarathustra, is the one who is willing to risk all for the sake ofenhancement of humanity. In contrary to the “last man” whose sole desire is hisown comfort and is incapable of creating anything beyond oneself in any form.This should suggest that an overman is someone who can establish his own valuesas the world in which others live their lives, often unaware that they are notpregiven. This means an overman can affect and influence the lives of others.In other words, an overman has his own values, independent of others, whichaffects and dominates others’ lives that may not have predetermined values butonly herd instinct. An overman is then someone who has a life which is notmerely to live each day with no meanings when nothing in the past and future ismore important than the present, or more precisely, the pleasure and happinessin the present, but with the purpose for humanity.
In Nietzsche’s view, an overmanshould be able to affect history indefinitely. He will keep reentering theworld through other people’s minds and affect their thoughts and values.Napolean who is highly admired by Nietzsche may be seen as an example heresince he changed and created orders in Europe. What he did effects greatly inhow Europe is today. This idea agrees with another of his most significantidea, the idea of the will-to-power. He asserts that life is the will-to-power.Although it is hard to say exactly what he meant by that term, it can bedescribed as something, which underlies how human thinks, behaves and acts inall circ*mstances. He views that a human being is always in a constant struggleto quench his own desire. This is shown in the context of power used to excludedesires of others that is in conflict to his, power that is used to achievewhat they desire. A living thing always seeks to discharge its strength, notonly to survive but to power and this sometimes results in violent behaviourwhich is, allegedly by Nietzshce, intrinsic to the nature of men. However, theway to will can be different, constructive or destructive. My interpretationwould then be that an overman uses the will-to-power to influence and dominatethe thoughts of others creatively from generation to generation. In this way,his existence and power live on even after he dies.
Nietzsche also has the answer tolife that seems suffering. His answer, which is expressed in the same book ofZarathustra, is an attitude towards life that helps one overcome the feeling ofits meaninglessness. It starts with the idea that life is an eternal recurrencewith no beginning and no end but a repetition of the very same life over andover again. With all sufferings, unhappiness and misdeeds in life, one may feelcursed and despaired if he inevitably were to repeat the same life with thesame pain and joy. However, the most important point may not be whether life isreally an eternal recurrence. Rather, although not explicitly stated, theimportant point is that an overman should view it differently such that in thevery same life, there has been a moment that it redeems everything else. Itthen makes him content with and happy to repeat that very same life again andagain. He has got the feeling of unity of creation and destruction, good andbad taste of life and is able to say that life is good even it may seemterrible and questionable. He views all the past actions, silly or wise,accidental or achieving, as necessity of becoming himself. Therefore he canredeem himself and thus be willing to repeat the same life again. Some may evensay that “it was” and “thus I willed it” even though he knows well that onecannot will backward and there are many other limitations in life. It impliesthat living a life of an overman is to live with the knowledge of what hasalready happened and constant reinterpretation according to it. Clearly, an overman is then someone who can,with appreciation, face life that may seem so suffering and absurd, knowingthat the basic conditions of life will not change even when he is in the idealstate of an overman.
In a sense, overman is aboutself-overcoming. It involves an attitude towards life when one may feeldespaired and feel life is meaningless. It is about the way to deal with“truth” not in direct manner with straightforward rules as in rationalism, butmore like a sensitive mix of trickier indirect approaches. As he compared thiswith winning a woman’s heart, those who approach clumsily and directly willbound to failure and hence left dispirited. When compared to Kantian view oftruth, it can be seen that going straight into finding an absolute naked truthmay leave one unsastisfied with questions that remain unanswered. Instead,Nietzsche suggested the way to tackle this by going along with it and take itas it is. One will then feel content and happy with the life that may be soquestionable.
Another characteristic used todescribe an overman originated in his earlier work, The Birth of Tragedy. In this book, the notion of Apollonion andDionysian principles is used with respect to his analysis of the Greek tragedy.They are used to describe two principles men use in thinking which consequentlydetermine actions. Apollonion principle is the principle of light, rationality,order and clear boundaries whereas Dionysian is the principle of the dark, irratioanality,the collapse of order and boundaries. The Apollonion views an individual asseparate from other reality and hence can be viewed dispassionately withrationality. On the other hand, the Dionysian views things as a living wholewhere one is a part of a larger reality. The Apollonion therefore involves nopassion or emotion but pure reasons with order whereas the Dionysian ispassionate, dynamic and unpredictable. Nietzsche believes that a balance of thetwo principles is essential in order to have some meanings in life. He seems tobe very fond of art and viewed that artistic works, paintings, plays,literature or music exhibit a great deal of Dionysian principle in the form ofcreativity. In his later work, the importance of the Dionysian principle inliving a life with values and meanings is expressed clearly. He views that thehighest state attainable by a man can be achieved when life is conceived interms of the realisation of the Dionysian ideal of the overman. That means onemust realise and accept his own Dionysian nature and use it appropriately.
From my point of view, Nietzschemust have treated art as something higher than ordinary, mass-conventionallogic and rationality such as that in science for he admired creativity andbeauty in art above all things. A person who will be viewed by Nietzsche as anoverman is then more likely to be an artist who uses his Dionysian principleand way of thinking and feeling to create works that carry particularindividual’s picture or interpretation of the world. His values may or may notbe the same as any other but a good artist should be able to combine creativitywith his perception of the world and life and express it well in his work. Oncomparison to Aristotle who views that the most desirable state of a person isa philosopher who contemplates, Nietzsche viewed traditional philosophersduring his time as people who did not really affect the real world outside andusually their traditional philosophical works were merely self confession. Itcan then be seen that his value is highly placed upon the concept of Dionysusand therefore he praised the Greek civilisation where a lot of creativity tookplace even more than in present society. Nietzsche accepted that Socrates didaffect the history greatly, which is the characteristic that Nietzsche valued.However, he blamed Socrates for the western society and culture that emphasisedthe Apollonion principle too much. Socrates was thought to have gone too far indefending rationality. He even viewed that we could use reasoning in everythingso that the nature’s flaws can be corrected. It is then what the western dreamsof and pursues up until now through science and technology. This is the viewthat does not accept human limitation, that men are powerless and have nocontrol but always places men on the top of everything. In contrast, Nietzscheviews that an overman must be able to accept these limitations and can face itin the eternal recurrence. Nietzsche must have felt that the western culturehad put less and less significance on artistic creativity and passion thatmental and spiritual power which create beauty in life have fewer and fewerplaces in the modern society.
Emotion is one of the attributes ofDionysus and is also one of the entities which Nietzsche defended. He viewsthat emotion is natural. Its repression or suppression is psychologicallydisastrous. This also includes sexuality. He attacked Christianity for itstraditional value that places bars on emotion and impulse and this is viewed byNietzsche as self-denying. He disagrees on inhibiting and thwarting human ownnature. Rather, an overman must accept his own nature and divert the energy ofprimitive impulses into a culturally, higher or socially more acceptable,activity. This is exactly what should happen to a good artist on creating hiswork of art. To him, the Dionysian is not completely dark and evil as oppositeto the Apollonion which is associated with light and reason. The Dionysian israther viewed as natural, both good and bad just like any ordinary human being.It is in every human nature. With a right balance with the Apollonion and withthe right use, a burst of creativity is the result. However, it is usually thecase that when the Apollonion principle mixes the Dionysian, it tends tosuppress the Dionysian. As a result, the Dionysian principle is expressed in adestructive way. Basically, an overman must be able to control this and divertthe Dionysian power into something creative. To Nietzsche, Dionysian isprofoundly irrational rather than negatively or stubbornly irrational.
In the present age where science and rationality are highlyvalued, I realise that it is hard to accept the negative side of being rationalsince it seems to be the most reliable tool in treating others, living togetherand judging. Without it, society can be chaotic and too much disordered for nocontrol is imposed on the irrational ones who do not use the Dionysianprinciple in a productive way. However, I agree with Nietzsche in the beauty ofthe product created out of Dionysian principle and feel that the right mix ofApollonion and Dionysian will make the world much nobler, not in the luxurioussense but aesthetic one. The world with no passion and emotion will be anunnatural one and this special property, among others, of human that differsfrom other animals will be lost.
Nietzsche might or might notconsider himself an overman but he surely determined to be a means or bridgewho brings closer to reality an emergence of an overman. In his view, men arenot born equal. He always stresses on the difference of men and hence incontrast to Marx who includes everyone into his ideal society. For Nietzsche,there are only some capable and talented who qualifies to be an overman fromhis point of view. Therefore, he is usually perceived superficially as anelitist which might have brought down the value of his thinking. To me, it is afact that is hard to swallow for all of us and quite sceptical on the abilityof men. However, it is the case, at least throughout the history of mankind upto the present, for men are educated differently and experience differentthings. Nevertheless, Nietzsche’s thinking provides some space for this. Hesays that his ideal is not necessarily everyone’s universal ideal. Each of usvalues things differently and therefore his overman may not be the same asothers’ overman. He consequently urges for revaluation of traditional valuessuch as, the supression of emotion, the wholeheartedly devoted rationalism. Anoverman, in his view, should not be restricted by tradition nor bounded byconvention but has independent values of his own.
From all that is shown above, wemay say that Nietzsche’s overman must be able to affect history indefinitely,conceives life in terms of Dionysian realisation and is able to divertDionysian principle into something creative. With this kind of attitude and therealisation of his own limitation in life, he would then be able to face life,look back with satisfaction, realising that all pasts make him what he istoday, and hence feel happy if he were to repeat that very same life eternally.An overman should then be content with his own life and appreciate every bit ofit even though some of them are painful and suffering. He spends each day ofhis life creating beauty, which affects the minds of others through out thetime, knowing that his life has values and meanings since his existence ofwill-to-power will live on indefinitely.
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References
<![if !supportLists]>1)<![endif]>The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche,ed. B.Magnus and K.M.Higgins, Cambridge University Press, 1990.
<![if !supportLists]>2)<![endif]>Nietzsche, Life As Literature,Alexander Nehamas, Havard University Press,1994.
<![if !supportLists]>3)<![endif]>Nietzsche for Beginners, M.Sautet,Writers and readers, 1990.
<![if !supportLists]>4)<![endif]>Nietzsche:A Critical Reader.
<![if !supportLists]>5)<![endif]>Philosophy II lecture handouts.
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