Which of us in our youth did not read the famous work of the greatest German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, “So says Zarathustra,” making ambitious plans and dreaming of conquering the world. The movement along the path of life brought its own corrections, and dreams of greatness and glory receded into the background, giving way to more mundane pressing issues. Moreover, feelings and emotions entered our lives, and the dispassionate path of the superman no longer seemed to us such a tempting prospect. Is Nietzsche’s idea applicable in our life, or is it a utopia of a famous genius that a mere mortal cannot approach? Let's try to figure it out.
The formation of the image of the superman in the history of society
Who first put forward the idea of superman? it turns out that it has its roots in the distant past. In the legendary Golden Age, supermen acted as intermediaries in communication between gods and people who considered themselves weak and unworthy to touch a deity.
Later, the concept of the superman became closely connected with religion, and in almost all religions there is a similar idea of the messiah, whose role is to save people and intercession before God. In Buddhism, the superman even replaces the idea of God, because the Buddha is not a god, but a superman.
The image of the superman in those far days had nothing to do with ordinary people. A person could not even think that by working on himself he can develop superpowers in himself, but over time we see examples of endowing these qualities with real people. So, in ancient history, Alexander the Great was perceived as a superman, and later Julius Caesar.
In the Renaissance, this image was associated with the sovereign, the bearer of absolute power, described by N. Machiavelli, and among the German romantics, the superman is a genius who is not subject to ordinary human laws.
In the 19th century, for many, Napoleon was the standard.
Approaching the superman of Friedrich Nietzsche
At that time, in European philosophy, a call to study the inner world of man is becoming more apparent, but Nietzsche makes a real breakthrough in this direction, which challenges man, recognizing his ability to transform into a superman:
“Man is something that must be overcome. What have you done to overcome man? ”
In short, the idea of Nietzsche’s superman is that man, as he understands it, is a bridge to the superman, and you can overcome this bridge by suppressing the animal principle in yourself and moving towards an atmosphere of freedom. According to Nietzsche, a man serves as a rope stretched between animals and a superman, and only at the end of this path can he regain his lost meaning.
Opinions about the teachings of Nietzsche, as well as about himself, are very mixed. While some consider him an unconditional genius, others perceive him as a monster, who initiated a philosophical ideology that justified fascism.
Before starting to consider the main provisions of his theory, let's get acquainted with the life of this extraordinary person, who, of course, left its mark on his beliefs and thoughts.
Biography Facts
Friedrich Nietzsche was born on October 18, 1844 in the family of a pastor, and his childhood passed in a small town near Leipzig. When the boy was only five years old, his father passed away as a result of a mental illness, and a year later his younger brother. Nietzsche was very upset by the death of his father and carried these tragic memories to the end of his life.
From childhood, he had a painful perception and acutely experienced mistakes, so he strove for self-development and internal discipline. Acutely aware of the lack of inner calm, he taught his sister: "When you know how to control yourself, then you begin to own the whole world."
Nietzsche was a calm, gentle and compassionate man, but with difficulty found mutual understanding with others, who, however, could not fail to recognize the outstanding abilities of the young genius.
After graduating from the Pfort School, which was one of the best in Germany in the 19th century, Friedrich entered the University of Bonn to study theology and classical philology. However, after the first semester he stopped attending his theological classes and wrote to a deeply religious sister that he had lost faith. He focused on the study of philology under the guidance of Professor Friedrich Wilhelm Richl, who followed in 1965 at the University of Leipzig. In 1869, Nietzsche accepted the offer of the University of Basel in Switzerland to become a professor of classical philology.
During the Franco-Prussian war in 1870-1871. Nietzsche as an orderly joined the Prussian army, where he contracted dysentery and diphtheria. This aggravated his poor health - from childhood, Nietzsche suffered from excruciating headaches, stomach problems, and while studying at the University of Leipzig (according to some reports) he contracted syphilis when visiting a brothel.
In 1879, health problems reached such a critical point that he was forced to resign from his post at the University of Basel.
The years after Basel
Nietzsche spent the next decade traveling around the world in an attempt to find a climate that could alleviate the symptoms of his illness. The sources of income at that time were a pension from the university and the help of friends. Sometimes he came to Naumburg to visit mother and sister Elizabeth, with whom Nietzsche had frequent conflicts over her husband, who had Nazi and anti-Semitic views.
In 1889, Nietzsche suffered a mental disorder while in Turin, Italy. It is said that the starting point of this disorder was its accidental presence when a horse was beaten. Friends took Nietzsche to a psychiatric clinic in Basel, but his mental state quickly worsened. At the initiative of his mother, he was transferred to a hospital in Jena, and a year later he was brought home to Naumburg, where his mother took care of him until his death in 1897. After the death of his mother, these concerns fell on his sister Elizabeth, who, after Nietzsche’s death, inherited his unpublished works. It was her publications that played a key role in the later identification of Nietzsche's works with Nazi ideology. Further research on Nietzsche's work rejects the existence of any connection between his ideas and their interpretation by the Nazis.
After he suffered a blow in the late 1890s, Nietzsche was unable to walk and talk. In 1900, he contracted pneumonia and died after a stroke. According to many biographers and historians who have studied the life of the great philosopher, Nietzsche’s health problems, including mental illness and early death, were caused by tertiary syphilis, but there were other causes, such as manic depression, dementia, and others. In addition, in the last years of his life he was practically blind.
The Thorny Path to the World of Philosophy
Oddly enough, but the years of excruciating suffering associated with poor health coincided with his most fruitful years, marked by the writing of many works on the topics of art, philology, history, culture, science and philosophy. It was at this time that the idea of the superman in Nietzsche’s philosophy appeared.
He knew the value of life, because being terminally ill and living in constant suffering from physical pain, he still claimed that "life is good." He tried to absorb every moment of this life, repeating the phrase that each of us has repeatedly said in his life: "What does not kill us makes us stronger."
Through inhuman efforts, overcoming the excruciating, unbearable pain, he wrote his imperishable works, in which more than one generation draws inspiration. Like his favorite image (Zarathustra), he “climbed the highest mountains to laugh at all the tragedy of the scene and life. Yes, this laughter was through tears of suffering and pain ...
The most famous and discussed work of the great scientist: the idea of the superman Friedrich Nietzsche
How did it all begin? Since the death of God ... This meant that the increasingly secular and scientific society could no longer find meaning in Christianity, as in the past. Where could a man turn in search of the lost meaning, having lost the opportunity to turn to God? Nietzsche had his own scenario.
The superman is the goal that must be achieved in order to return to the person the lost meaning. The very word "superman" Nietzsche borrowed from Goethe's "Faust", but invested in it a completely different, his own meaning. What was the path of this new image?
Nietzsche traces 2 concepts of the development of events: one of them is based on Darwin’s biological theory of the constant development of the evolutionary process leading to the emergence of a new biological species, and thus considered the creation of the superman the next development point. But in connection with the extremely long path of this process, the fast-paced Nietzsche in his impulses could not wait so long, and in his work a different concept appears, according to which a person is presented as something final, and the superman is the most perfect human type.
On the way to the superman, it is necessary to go through several stages of the development of the human spirit:
- The state of the camel (the state of slavery is “you must”, which puts pressure on the person.
- The state of the lion (dropping the shackles of slavery and the creation of “new values.” This stage serves as the beginning of the evolution of man into the superman.
- The condition of the child (period of creativity)
What is he - the crown of creation, the superman?
According to the idea of Nietzsche's superman, anyone can and should become one regardless of nationality and social status. First of all, this is a person who controls his fate, stands above the concept of good from evil and independently chooses moral rules for himself. It is inherent in spiritual creativity, complete concentration, the will to power, super-individualism. This person is free, independent, strong, not needing compassion and free from compassion for others.
The goal of the life of the superman is the search for truth and overcoming oneself. He is freed from morality, religion and authority.
The will comes to the fore in the philosophy of Nietzsche. The essence of life is the will to power, introducing meaning and order into the chaos of the universe.
Nietzsche is called the great moral subverter and nihilist, and his ideas about the need to build the morality of strong people instead of the Christian religion, built on the principle of compassion, are associated with the ideology of fascism.
Nietzsche's Philosophy and Nazi Ideology
Followers of the connection between Nietzsche’s philosophy and fascism cite his words about the beautiful blond beast who can go wherever he wants in search of prey and desire to win, as well as Nietzsche’s calls for the establishment of a “new order” with the “sovereign of the people” at the head. However, when studying the works of the greatest philosopher, one can notice that his positions and the positions of the Third Reich are in many ways diametrically opposed.
Often phrases taken out of context get a different meaning, completely far from the original - in relation to Nietzsche’s works, this is especially evident when many quoted quotes from his works take only what is on the surface and do not reflect the deep meaning of his teachings.
Nietzsche openly stated that he did not support German nationalism and anti-Semitism, as evidenced by his conflict with his sister after she married a man who shared these views.
But how could the bloody dictator of the Third Reich pass by such an idea when it so ... approached his painful perception of its role in world history? He considered himself the very superman whose appearance Nietzsche predicted.
There is information that on Hitler’s birthday, Nietzsche made an entry in his diary: “I can accurately predict my fate. Someday my name will be closely connected and associated with the memory of something terrible and monstrous. "
Unfortunately, the gloomy omen of the great philosopher came true.
Was there a place for compassion in the idea of the superman in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche?
The question is far from idle. Yes, the ideal of the superman denies this virtue, but only in terms of expressing the weakness of a characterless, passive being. Nietzsche does not deny the very feeling of compassion as the ability to feel the suffering of other people. Zarathustra says:
Let your compassion be a divination: so that you know in advance whether your friend wants compassion.
The fact is that compassion and pity can not always and not for everyone have a good and beneficial effect - they can offend someone. If we consider Nietzsche's “giving virtue”, then the object is not my own “I”, not selfish compassion, but the desire to bestow another. Thus, compassion should be altruistic, and not within the framework of listing this act in the list of good deeds.
Conclusion
What are the fundamental principles of the idea of Nietzsche’s superman that we learn after reading the book “So Zarathustra Says”? Oddly enough, it is definitely difficult to answer this question - everyone brings something for himself, accepting one and denying the other.
In his work, the great philosopher condemns the society of small, gray and submissive people, seeing them as a great danger, and opposes the depreciation of the human personality, its individuality and originality.
The main idea of Nietzsche's superman is the idea of exaltation of man.
He makes us think, and his imperishable work will always excite a person who is in search of the meaning of life. But can the idea of Nietzsche's superman serve for happiness? It is unlikely ... Looking back at the painful life path of this talented person and his monstrous loneliness, absorbing him from the inside, we can not say that the ideas formulated by him made him happy.