Abstract

As the concept of the will does not correspond to the will to power so, in Nietzsche’s philosophy, the theory of the Übermensch does not correspond to the traditional idea of the human. Nietzsche’s Zarathustra puts forth the question of what it means to be human and also non-human, arriving at an understanding of the beyond-human, that is the Übermensch, the unique being who experiences the extraordinary and sublime idea of the Eternal Recurrence. Nietzsche’s idea comes after considering a series of human types with different characteristics—the free spirit, the last Man, and the bound spirit. To these are added a different kind of non-human symbolic animal: the serpent, that is, the grounded animal; and the eagle. The camel and the lion are examples of different human types: the camel, the submissive; the lion, the fearless. Beyond these differences, Nietzsche’s final intent is to reject nihilism due to the mysterious, sublime, cosmic vision of the Eternal Recurrence, which aspires to an esoteric understanding of an over-human reality that is communicable only to the few.