Nietzsche's Philosophy: Superman, Will to Power, Eternal Return

The Superman

Nietzsche announced the death of God. He presents two contrasting figures: the last man and the superman. The superman is a god who will affirm earthly life. This absolute negation of old values opens the possibility of affirming new values. The superman represents the opposite pole to the last man. These new values are not based on a beyond. The superman represents the meaning of life, not merely to deny or reverse the old values, but to create new ones, faithful to the meaning of life. Not subject to the impositions of the dominant morality, the superman represents the new man who will emerge from the effort of will to power, replacing the decadent humans of Western culture.

Nietzsche describes three metamorphoses leading to the idea of the superman:

• Camel: The camel carries the heavy burden of morality, the weight imposed from outside, the weight of millenary values. The camel represents the man of Western culture.
• Lion: The camel transforms into a lion, changing "you must" to "I want." The lion disposes of oppressive and unnatural burdens. It is the metaphor of the negation of established values and represents the critique of traditional morality, but it only knows how to say "no." It is incapable of creating new values.
• Child: The lion embodies a child to say "yes." The child represents the creative waiting, innocence, oblivion of the old values, and a new beginning. It represents existence as an adventure, a creative game, and the natural and sincere affirmation of life. The child creates new values for life beyond good and evil. This is the superman.

The Will to Power

God is dead, and the superman must generate new values to replace the old through the will to power. This will is a desire for self-mastery, an instinctive force, a vital power. The will to power cannot be reduced to a determination for survival, a political will to dominate, or a desire for material possessions, but rather the power of creators. There is an influence of Schopenhauer here, but while Schopenhauer believed that the end of the pain inherent in life is achieved only at the time of death, Nietzsche's will to power is about living, not the desire to join the stream of nothingness that is death.

The Eternal Return

Nietzsche speaks of his intuition of the eternal return, which means that the cycles of time begin and end, constantly repeating infinitely. Each and every thing done will occur again. The eternal return is the infinite repetition of all that exists. It is a vision of cyclical time, similar to that of some Greek thinkers, which was sidelined by the Judeo-Christian vision of linear time with a beginning and an end. For Nietzsche, there is no afterlife, no better life, only this single earthly life, which is repeated forever. Recognizing the necessity of each moment and its return is the message that Zarathustra has come to preach. The eternal return is a moral doctrine that requires you to live in such a way that you would wish to live again, and this is your duty. Nietzsche says that the universe has a limited amount of energy, but time is infinite. Therefore, the combinations of this energy are finite. Each state of the universe's energy has already been produced. Therefore, the present moment is the return of a previous energy configuration. Nietzsche believes that there is only this earthly life, which we must live as if it will return infinitely often.