Nietzsche's Philosophy: Freedom and the Superman

What can be said of Nietzsche's philosophy is that it is based on freedom from the burden of God, to become a Superman who can do what he wants without being accountable to anyone. He considers how weak those who are subject to the laws of God are, which is demonstrated in many ways, as follows:

When in his The Birth of Tragedy he speaks of the Apollonian and the Dionysian, the Apollonian represents something harmonic and orderly, which is not too good for man, and the Dionysian is the essence of life. He also states that morality is anti-life, and that moral life should be condemned. Nietzsche criticized Socrates for having "invented" morality.

Nietzsche's Moral Distinction

Nietzsche makes a distinction between two types of morality:

• Slave Morality: Found in the souls of the oppressed and resentful, dominated by others, and whose virtues are servility, diligence, kindness, and fear.
• Master Morality: The exaltation of the individual, representing the primitive barbarian, the noble, imposing their own values by force.

The Superman is powerful and a creator of values. He becomes certain of the goodness of his actions without following established morals, and his actions must not be judged by anyone; no one has the authority.

Genealogy of Morals

To avoid slave morality, Nietzsche proposes a method capable of detecting the origin of the concepts of good and evil. First, one would have to examine these words:

"Good" originally meant noble and distinguished, while "evil" was synonymous with vulgar and plebeian. After this, there is the historical road, which reveals the existence of two periods: a pre-moral period and a period of moral habits.

The Death of God and the Superman

To get rid of the burden of morality, Nietzsche "kills" God because he believes that God is the contraceptive of life. He says God is a lie invented by man to defend the weak from the strong, the rulers, and introduced the concept of transcendence. So, Nietzsche says he despises man. Nietzsche says God is against our life because God represents death.

Therefore, Nietzsche announces the death of God and spreads the concept of the Superman, who is the successor of God. To become the Superman, one must invert values, a process described in his work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. To explain it, he uses the figures of the camel, the lion, and the child:

• The camel is the servant, subject to imperatives. It is the image of the will subject to morality and religion.
• But in the lonely desert, the camel becomes a lion, who wants to conquer his freedom and be master of his desert. This lion goes from "I must" to "I want". He begins to deny importance and invest values. Now everything is allowed.
• But this lion cannot establish new values, so he becomes a child, that is, an innocent who invents the game of life.