GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

636 ETHICS AND POLITICS: THE MODERNS
The Coming of the Superman. Towards the end of
his life Nietzsche lost his reason and his later thought is
characterized by a certain wildncss. Regarded as a systematic
philosopher expounding a considered and con-
sistent body of doctrine, Nietzsche is of small importance.
It is as a medium for catching and precipitating the
tendencies stirring in the womb of the times that he
acquires significance. The theories which I have sketched
culminate on the ethical side in the doctrine of the Super*
man, and on the political, in the apotheosis ofthe aggressive
warrior and of the aggressive State. With the rise of
Fascism these doctrines have assumed an importance
far exceeding what seemed likely in the age when
Nietzsche announced them.
With the doctrine of the Superman we are not here
directly concerned. It is a development of the biological
idea which Nietzsche derived from Darwin. Darwin
taught that a number of previous species had led up to
and culminated in man; it is probable, then, Nietzsche
pointed out, that man himself will be superseded. The being
who is to supersede and surpass man is the Superman.
Forerunners of the Superman are already beginning to
appear; they are, indeed, the superior individuals in
whom the will to power has become conscious, who have
achieved mastery over self by discipline, and over others
by personality. Ultimately, fitun among their number the
Superman will emerge. "I teach you the Superman. Man
is something that is to be surpassed. What have ye done
to surpass man? All beings hitherto have created something
beyond themselves, and ye want to be the ebb of
that great tide, and would rather go back to the beast
than surpass man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock,
a thing of shame. And just the same shall man be
to the Superman: a laughing-stock, a thing of shame."
Although Nietzsche believed in a continuous evolutionary
process leading up to man, and from man to the Superman,
he held somewhat inconsistently that with the Superman the
process would stop. The development of the Superman was