He quintessence of Nietzsche's philosophy is the "overman." What is the
overman?
The word (_Uebermensch_) comes from a good mint; it is of Goethe's
coinage, and he used it in the sense of an awe-inspiring being, almost
in the sense of _Unmensch_, to characterize Faust, the titanic man of
high aims and undaunted courage,--the man who would not be moved in the
presence of hell and pursued his aspirations in spite of the forbidding
countenance of God and the ugly grin of Satan. But the same expression
was used in its proper sense about two and a half millenniums ago
in ancient China, where at the time of Lao-tze the term _chiün jen_
[Chin. chars], "superior man," or _chiün tse_, "superior sage," was in
common usage. But the overman or _chiün jen_ of Lao-tze, of Confucius
and other Chinese sages is not a man of power, not a Napoleon, not
an unprincipled tyrant, not a self-seeker of domineering will, not a
man whose ego and its welfare is his sole and exclusive aim, but a
Christlike figure, who puts his self behind and thus makes his self--a
nobler and better self--come to the front, who does not retaliate, but
returns good for evil,[1] a man (as the Greek sage describes him) who
would rather suffer wrong than commit wrong.[2]
This kind of higher man is the very opposite of Nietzsche's overman,
and it is the spirit of this nobler conception of a higher humanity
which furnishes the best ideas of all the religions of the world, of
Lao-tze's Taoism, of Buddhism and of Christianity.
Alexander Tille, the English translator of Nietzsche's _Thus Spake
Zarathustra_, translates the word _Uebermensch_ by "beyond-man." But
"beyond" means _jenseits_; and Nietzsche wrote _über_, i. e., superior
to, over, or higher than, and the literal translation "overman" appears
to be the best. It is certainly better than the barbaric combination of
"superman" in which Latin and Saxon are mixed against one of the main
rules for the construction of words. Say "superhuman" and "overman,"
but not "overhuman" or "superman." Emerson in a similar vein, when
attempting to characterize that which is higher than the soul, invented
the term "oversoul," and I can see no objection to the word "overman."
The overman is the higher man, the superhuman man of the future, a
higher, nobler, more powerful, a better being than the present man!
What a splendid idea! Since evolution has been accepted as a truth, we
may fairly trust that we all believe in the overman. All our reformers
believe in the possibility of realizing a higher mankind. We Americans
especially have faith in the coming of the kingdom of the overman, and
our endeavor is concentrated in hastening his arrival. The question is
only, What is the overman and how can we make this ideal of a higher
development actual?
Happy Nietzsche! You need not trouble yourself about consistency;
you reject all ideals as superstitions, and then introduce an ideal
of your own. "There you see," says an admirer of Nietzsche, "what a
splendid principle it is not to own any allegiance to logic, or rule,
or consistency. The best thought of Nietzsche's would never have been
uttered if he had remained faithful to his own principles."
However ingenious the idea of an overman may be, Nietzsche carries his
propositions to such extremes that in spite of many flashes of truth
they become in the end ridiculous and even absurd. His ideal is good,
but he utterly fails to comprehend its nature and also the mode in
which alone the overman can be realized.
Nietzsche proclaims the coming of the "overman," but his overman is not
superior by intellect, wisdom, or nobility of character, but by vigor,
by strength, by an unbending desire for power and an unscrupulous
determination. The blond barbarian of the north who tramples under
foot the citizens of Greece and Rome, Napoleon I, and the Assyrian
conqueror,--such are his heroes in whom this higher manhood formerly
manifested itself.
He saw in the history of human thought, the development of the notion
of the "true world," which to him was a mere subjective phantom, a
superstition; but a reaction must set in, and he prophesied that the
doom of nihilism would sweep over the civilized world applying the
torch to its temples, churches and institutions. Upon the ruins of
the old world the real man, the overman, would rise and establish his
own empire, an empire of unlimited power in which the herds, i. e.,
the common people, would become subservient. The "herd animal" (so
Nietzsche called any one foolish enough to recognize morality and
truth) is born to obey. He is destined to be trodden under foot by the
overman who is strong, and also unscrupulous enough to use the herds
and govern them.
Nietzsche was by no means under the illusion that the rule of the
overman would be lasting, but he took comfort in the thought that
though there would be periods in which the slaves would assert
themselves and establish an era of the herd animals, the overman
would nevertheless assert himself from time to time, and this was
what he called his "doctrine of the eternal return"--the gospel of
his philosophy. The highest summit of existence is reached in those
phases of the denouement of human life when the overman has full
control over the herds which are driven into the field, sheared
and butchered for the sole benefit of him who knows the secret that
this world has no moral significance beyond being a prey to his good
pleasure. Nietzsche's hope is certainly not desirable for the mass
of mankind, but even the fate of the overman himself would appear as
little enviable a condition as that of the tyrant Dionysius under the
sword of Damocles, or the Czar of Russia living in constant fear of the
anarchistic bomb.
Nietzsche, feeling that his thoughts were untimely, lived in the
hope of "the coming of the great day" on which his views would find
recognition. He looked upon the present as a rebellion against the
spirit of strength and vigor; Christianity especially, and its doctrine
of humility and love for the down-trodden was hateful to him. He speaks
of it as a rebellion of slaves and places in the same category the
democraticism that now characterizes the tendency of human development
which he denounces as a pseudo-civilization.
He insists that the overman is beyond good and evil; and yet it
is obvious that though he claims to be the first philosopher who
maintained the principle of unmorality, he was only the first
philosopher boldly to proclaim it. His maxim (or lack of maxims) has
been stealthily and secretly in use among all those classes whom he
calls "overmen," great and small. The great overmen are conquerors
and tyrants, who meteorlike appear and disappear, the small ones are
commonly characterized as the criminal classes; but there is this
difference between the two, that the former, at least so far as they
have succeeded, recognize the absolute necessity of establishing law
and order, and though they may temporarily have infringed upon the
rules of morality themselves, they have finally come always to the
conclusion that in order to maintain their position they must enforce
upon others the usual rules of morality.
Both Alexander and Cæsar were magnanimous at the right moment. They
showed mercy to the vanquished, they exercised justice frequently
against their own personal likes or dislikes, and were by no means men
of impulse as Nietzsche would have his overman be. The same is true
of Napoleon whose success is mainly due to making himself subservient
to the needs of his age. As soon as he assumed the highest power in
France, Napoleon replaced the frivolous tone at his court, to which his
first wife Josephine had been accustomed, by an observance of so-called
_bourgeois_ decency, and he enforced it against her inclinations and
his own.
Further, Napoleon served the interests of Germany more than is
commonly acknowledged by sweeping out of existence the mediæval
system of innumerable sovereigns, ecclesiastical as well as secular,
who in conformity with the conservative tenor of the German people
had irremediably ensconced themselves in their hereditary rights
to the disadvantage of the people. Moreover, the _Code Napoleon_,
the new law book, perhaps the most enduring work of Napoleon, was
compiled by the jurists of the time, not because Napoleon cared for
justice, but because he saw that the only way of establishing a stable
government was by acknowledging rules of equity and by enforcing
their recognition. It is true that Napoleon made his service in the
cause of right and justice a pedestal for himself, but in contrast to
Nietzsche's ideas we must notice that this recognition of principle
was the only way of success to a man whose natural tendency was an
unbounded egotism, an unlimited desire for power.
In spite of his enthusiasm in announcing the advent of an overman,
Nietzsche would be a poor adviser for a rising usurper. He would be
able to cause a great upheaval, to bring about a Volcanic eruption,
or to raise a thunderstorm wherever restlessness prevails, but his
philosophy lacks the principle of using discretion, or advising
self-discipline, of applying scientific methods--all of which is
indispensable for success. He preaches boldness, not wisdom; and a hero
after Nietzsche's heart would be like a navigator who courageously
ventures into the storm but scorns a chart and leaves the mariners'
compass behind; he would steer not as circumstances demand but
according to his own sweet will, and would be wrecked before ever
reaching the harbor of overmanhood.
How much greater is the ideal of the overman as taught by the ancient
philosopher of China! He, the _chiün jen_, the superior man, does not
need power either political or financial to be great; he does not need
a pedestal of oppressed slaves to stand on; he is great in himself,
because he has a great compassionate heart and a broad comprehensive
mind. He is simple, and, as we read in the _Tao Teh King_, "He wears
wool [is not dressed in silk and purple] and wears his jewel concealed
in his bosom."
[1] _Lao-tse's Tao Teh King_, Chaps. 49 and 63.
[2] For a collection of Greek quotations on the ethics of returning
good for evil, see _The Open Court_, Vol. XV, 1901, pp. 9-12.