What is Superman Philosophy? What is the Superman Doctrine

Huang Jingkai: Nietzsche's "superman" philosophy.

Nietzsche has always been a controversial figure in the history of Western philosophy and one of the most misunderstood philosophers of the twentieth century. In Nietzsche's vast and complex system of thought, the philosophy of the "superman" undoubtedly occupies an important place.

The main question raised by Nietzsche is how to re-establish the meaning of life in an era of total collapse of traditional values. It was in his quest for the answer to this question that Nietzsche proposed his philosophy of the "superman".

Nietzsche's "superman" is a person who uses a new world outlook and outlook on life to construct a new value system on the basis of his claim that "God is dead and all traditional moral culture must be reevaluated." Superman has a completely new kind of morality that is different from traditional and popular morality, and is the person who best embodies the will to live, the person who is the most vigorous and creative, and the strong man in life. The image of the "superman" that Nietzsche refers to can be roughly summarized as:

Superman is a person who surpasses himself and surpasses the weak, he can fully express himself and dominate the mediocre; The superman is the criterion of truth and morality, and the creator of norms and values; Superman is free, selfish, and self-sufficient; Superman faces humanity's greatest suffering and greatest hope; Superman grew up in an unfavorable environment, where hatred, jealousy, stubbornness, suspicion, harshness, greed, and violence only make Superman stronger. Therefore, we can conclude that the superman mentioned by Nietzsche is not the kind of lowly and trivial weak person, but the superman is a full, rich, great, and complete person.

However, Nietzsche does not regard the superman as absolute, and what he calls the superman and the "last man" as opposed to the superman "is a relative concept", and the superman can transcend both himself and others.

In essence, we can see that Nietzsche's philosophy of the "superman" reflects his view of human nature in another sense. And the view of human nature and the human condition best shows the modern existential character of Nietzsche's philosophy. The reason why Nietzsche wants to find a meaning for his life that is higher than life itself is because he firmly believes that man is fundamentally different from other animals, that man is an "unformed animal", and that human value can be most perfectly embodied through the transcendence of the self, and that this value has a certain absolute meaning.

Nietzsche's statement that "God is dead" is actually an attempt to find possibility and space for people to obtain a greater degree of freedom, which is an ideal way for Nietzsche to discuss his superhuman ideals.

The philosophy of the superman was proposed by Nietzsche, who believed that the "superman" is the creator of history, he has the right to enslave the masses, and the ordinary people are just the tools of the "superman" to realize his will to power.

He opposed democracy, socialism, and the women's liberation movement, and even denounced doctors as a crime to save patients. He argues that art is a form of expression of the will to power, and that an artist is a person who expands and expresses himself to a high degree.

Nietzsche is a figure in the history of Western culture. He destroyed the traditional spiritual philosophy by proclaiming the death of God and established a temporal and individual-oriented philosophy of survival practice, and thus became one of the founders of modern Western culture. Most of the mainstream ideas of modern Western culture can be found in Nietzsche.

As an important part of Nietzsche's philosophy, the doctrine of the superman has had a huge impact on modern Western culture, and "Thus Said Zalastura" as a legacy of Nietzsche is the specific birthplace of this influence. In this work, he created the ideal existence of the superman in the language of poetry, pointing out that the goal of human existence is to transcend itself in this ideal existence, and in response to this transcendent movement, human beings need new social relations and new morality, and give marriage, death, and the self-transcendence of the individual through a new existential-ontological meaning. In this article, I will start from the basic fact of the transcendence of existence, evaluate Nietzsche's theory of the superman based on the work "Thus Says Zalastura", point out the lack of transcendence of this doctrine at the level of survival theory and ontology, and prepare for the establishment of the transcendent ideal of true human beings.

The transcendence of Nietzsche's superhuman theory is first of all to make the transcendent ideal of human beings return from heaven to the earth, thus restoring the human nature of transcending the ideal.

The core idea of the superman theory can be summed up in a sentence in "Zhou Yi": "Tianxingjian, a gentleman strives for self-improvement!" ”

In Nietzsche's view, "Superman" has at least the following characteristics: Superman is the most able to endure painful torture and rise from pain. They endure the most intense and painful suffering, and they have the strongest willpower. The most painful genius has the most hope of becoming a superman.

Nietzsche's superman has nothing to do with the traditional Chinese sages or the modern philosopher Feng Youlan's "four realms of man". 】

Nietzsche believes that the superman is the most valuable goal of the human world, so how to create a superman? According to Nietzsche, the right environment is needed. The so-called suitable environment refers to the sinister environment that Superman needs to grow.

The harsher the environment, the more likely it is that Superman will appear, and "towering trees will not grow in a greenhouse". Nietzsche said, "Examine the lives of the best and most productive, and then ask yourself

If a towering tree stands tall in the sky, can it be without the help of bad weather and storms? Are external malaise and antagonism, a certain hatred and jealousy, stubborn doubts, harsh greed and violence, not factors that are not good circumstances? Without such a smooth environment, even great growth in virtue would not have been possible.

Thus, Nietzsche unabashedly pointed out to people a superhuman way full of blood and horror: "I teach you the way of superman, human beings are things that should be surpassed". Don't look around, don't feel guilty and uneasy about your actions, go with your strong will, no matter how corpses float all over the field and blood flows.

It is necessary to force people to be desperate and exhausted in order to hope to reach the realm of superhuman. In Thus Said Zarathustra, he pointed out that the superman is the meaning of the earth. The metaphor is that the superman is the negation of the kingdom of heaven and the substitution of God.

In Nietzsche's view, the superman arises from beings who are loyal to the earth, but the superman is not the result of the evolution of all human beings, just as human beings are not the result of the evolution of all apes. The whole human race is like an ant mountain, among all living beings, only a few brave, creators, those with a large number of wills and high quality, can climb the rope suspended above the abyss and reach the other side of the glorious shore and become superhuman. Superman refers to the new humanity of the future, not to individual greats or outstanding people.

Superman is produced from the offspring of the existing excellent, but not the existing excellent itself, there has never been a superman in history or reality, and Nietzsche does not see himself as a superman. He just realized the decadence and weakness of human beings, and hoped that Superman would appear and call for Superman to come. He thinks he is at most a prophet of the coming of Superman.

Just as apes have been surpassed by man, so man will be surpassed by superman. Superman is the purpose and meaning of existing human beings, and modern people should actively and courageously move towards superman, which is the main essence of Nietzsche's superman philosophy.