217 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
217 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
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T h e G R E E N Y w o r l d D o m i n a t i o n T a s k F o r c e ,
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I n c o r p o r a t e d
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Presents:
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_____ ____ _| |__| |_ 9999 9999 55
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// | \ |_ __ _| 999 999 55
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\\___// \/\/ |____/ |_ __ _| 999 555
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999 555555555
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"Ubermensch and Raskolnikov" by Bob the Master of the World
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----- GwD: The American Dream with a Twist -- of Lime ***** Issue #95 -----
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----- release date: 01-03-01 ***** ISSN 1523-1585 -----
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(1) An immediate difficulty presents itself when attempting to glean the
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actual philosophical sentiments of Nietzsche in _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_, a
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problem common to this task when works of fiction are being investigated for the
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voice of the author. What is Nietzsche's true position in this work? Is his
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voice identical to the voice of Zarathustra or only at certain points in the
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latter's sermons? This question is the same that must be posed in the cases of
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both Plato and Soren Kierkegaard and is critical for discovering a greater
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philosophical "system" in Nietzsche, though such a label would no doubt repulse
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him. _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_ contains the germs for several future
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philosophical doctrines of Nietzsche and as such must be taken seriously, though
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it diverges from mainstream philosophical writing in matters of style. One of
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these ideas is that of the Ubermensch, variously translated as "overman" and
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"superman," discussed in the third section of the first part of _Thus Spoke
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Zarathustra_ (2). But how is one to approach an interpretation of what kind of
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creature the overman really is, given the ambiguous language in which Nietzsche
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describes him? As Nietzsche himself would remind us, a perspective must be
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adopted and, despite the evidence in favor of it, a perspective it must remain.
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I shall take an approach that emphasizes the words themselves that Nietzsche
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utilizes for the description of the overman and proceeds on the assumption that
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Nietzsche did not choose these specific words arbitrarily. Problems emerge,
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however, when one considers that Nietzsche wrote in German; Walter Kaufmann's
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translation of _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_, however, has generally been thought to
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be fairly reliable (3). Though I may open myself to accusations of
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interpretative naivety, I know of no better way to approach Zarathustra's
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sermon on the overman than by assigning him the role as Nietzsche's mouthpiece;
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for, after all, who can truly say whether or not Zarathustra represents the
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voice of Nietzsche?
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I undertake this task as a preliminary to another concern, namely to
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ascertain the veracity of the frequent identification of Rodion Romanovitch
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Raskolnikov, the protagonist of Fyodor Dostoevsky's _Crime and Punishment_, with
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Nietzsche's overman.
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I. What is the overman?
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It seems clear that a definition of "overman," as gleaned from _Thus Spoke
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Zarathustra_, is required if an identification of Raskolnikov with the overman
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is to be made, regardless of whether or not this identification is fully
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realized, merely approximated, or absent entirely in _Crime and Punishment_. To
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arrive at the essence of the overman, one must begin by clarifying the language
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in which Nietzsche speaks of him, lest the ambiguity leads to a confused
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exegetical account. I will attempt to construct an account of the overman based
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on this clarification.
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It is important first to notice that Zarathustra addresses the common
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people. The overman can, and it appears must, be the willing creation of the
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masses, one of their own, not some elite superhuman as some would have him. The
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people, Zarathustra warns, must secure for themselves and by themselves the
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return to humanity that the overman promises or suffer continuing devolution.
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The "man" that needs to be overcome by the overman is the moral element of
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humanity, emaciated by religion and fettered by traditional morality. Man has
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become for Nietzsche "a smaller, almost ridiculous type, a herd animal,
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something eager to please, sickly, and mediocre...the European of today" (4).
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The overman comes to overthrow the "ape," Nietzsche's caricature of man when
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retarded by traditional morality, not to slay the man. According to Nietzsche,
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the European is not truly man, yet while the term "man" continues to be applied
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to him, its meaning must necessarily change to reflect his degeneration.
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Nietzsche does not want man to evolve into something higher than man, which for
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all he knows may be impossible, but calls for the overman to return man to being
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man, to cease the devolution of man, to divest humanity of its "ape-ness:"
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"Scholarly oxen have suspected me of Darwinism on that account" (5). In this
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passage, Nietzsche wants to distance the concept of the overman from the concept
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of a creature that eclipses humanity in a strict biological sense; that is, he
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wants to reserve the "man" in "overman." The way to achieve the restoration of
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humanity is the way of the overman: "Verily, a polluted stream is man. One
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must be a sea to be able to receive a polluted stream without becoming unclean.
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Behold, I teach you the overman: he is this sea" (6).
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The overman conquers man by returning him to his essential humanity, to that
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purity of "humanness" possessed by all before the onset of morality, the man of
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nature. Yet he does so in the context of a new religion, the way of the earth,
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of nature, divested of all other-worldliness. This new religion is none other
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than the way of science: Nietzsche wants us to reject the idea that the soul is
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somehow superior to the body and that a noumenal world exists beyond our senses,
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a fiction exploited by the religious sphere to control man. Nietzsche, like
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both Confucius and the Buddha before him, wants to restore the attention of
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humanity to what they can actually perceive and affect, the "earth" as discussed
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in the overman section of _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_. Man, being the noblest
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product of the earth in his untainted form, could be interpreted as the "earth"
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to which man should "remain faithful," an idea that would naturally lead
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Nietzsche to Protagoras' dictum that "man is the measure of all things." The
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overman strives to focus man back on man, essentially promulgating a new
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humanism.
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Zarathustra creates a vision of the overman that appears rather similar to
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that of a naturalistic Socrates. Socrates likened himself to a stinging gadfly,
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awaking the horse (Athens) from his torpor. So too must the overman be, a thorn
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in the side of man, to wake man from his slumber. He is the "inoculation" for
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the disease of traditional morality: like an injection of a vaccination, the
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overman's coming will initially bring pain but then a better life. Yet, unlike
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Socrates with dialectical argumentation, the overman does not attempt to slowly
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erode the life-denying beliefs of traditional morality, which might be
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impossible; instead, he seeks to strike man as lightning would a tree in certain
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circumstances, whereby the tree is not wholly destroyed. What remains after
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this "frenzy" and "lightning" will be man as he should be according to
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Nietzsche, unpolluted by the deceits of traditional morality.
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So far all that has been demonstrated are various facets of the overman; a
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requirement at this point to describe the overman as a whole is obvious. The
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overman as described by Nietzsche is nothing other than a man who is determined
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to free his fellow men from the oppression of traditional morality and does so
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by first freeing himself and then violently attacking the beliefs of others, for
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he cannot free them without their cooperation. In this sense, Nietzsche's
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philosophical project, to arrive at a "creation of our own new tables of what is
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good," (7) mirrors the overman's quest in the manner of its undertaking:
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Nietzsche's virulent ad hominem attacks seek to cause pain in the reader in the
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hope of causing greater awareness.
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The overman's identity, expressed as a disjunction of the above
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characteristics, is essentially linked to his relationship with the rest of
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humanity; that is to say, one cannot be an overman without being the "sea" which
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cleanses man. Thus, the cave dweller ceases to exist as a cave dweller when he
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leaves the cave; the cave was essentially bound up with his being a cave
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dweller. Furthermore, upon approaching a cave, a man cannot be said to be a
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cave dweller, for he has yet to dwell in a cave. I propose that the overman
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fits into this metaphor: his existence as an overman depends essentially on
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doing what it is that an overman does. Well, what is the overman's occupation
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that makes him an overman? To be an overman means to have cast aside
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traditional morality, but this is only the first step, only the approach. He
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must then help to liberate others, to restore their humanity, and potentially in
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the process to create other overmen to assist him in this task. Just as the
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cave dweller can be said to be a cave dweller only after living in but a single
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cave, I think the overman can only be said to be an overman after having
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"overcome" at least a single man.
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II. Raskolnikov's Claim to Overmanship
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Under the above definition, it seems clear that the character of Raskolnikov
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in _Crime and Punishment_ is not an overman. Furthermore, given the ending of
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the novel in which Raskolnikov puts himself back under the yoke of traditional
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morality, he has not even successfully completed the first step, which, as
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mentioned above, consists in detaching oneself from the fetters of traditional
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morality. Raskolnikov attempts to justify his murder of Alyona Ivanova by
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extrapolating from her death the good that would occur to those under her
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oppression. Yet, in thinking in this fashion, Raskolnikov is still thinking of
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"good" in terms of traditional morality, though he might be commended from a
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utilitarian perspective. He strives to place his action above the law, but not
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above morality. Thus, he heads in an entirely distinct direction from that of
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the overman, seeking to become a paragon of traditional morality rather than its
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conqueror. Raskolnikov desires to arrive at some point beyond good and evil,
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yet it seems as if good and evil both remain and are accepted by the overman,
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though reinterpreted in the light of Nietzsche's humanism. Nietzsche clearly
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depicts the overman in a social context: lightning must necessarily strike
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something, at least in nature, it does not exist in a vacuum; Raskolnikov's
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isolationist character seems to preclude him from ever becoming an overman,
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though he may have accomplished the first step.
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It is to Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, to which we must turn if
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a suitable parallel to the overman is to be found. The Buddha, upon reaching
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enlightenment, could have left immediately for the bliss of Nirvana yet chose to
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live on the earth for another fifty years to teach others how to obtain this
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highest of mystical states. He strove to teach man to ignore metaphysical
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speculation and concentrate on improving himself in the present; I think
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Nietzsche would not object to these projects being identified with the tasks of
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the overman.
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-----
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-=[Footnotes]=-
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1. Uncited citations refer to the third section of the first part of _Thus
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Spoke Zarathustra_, save for a commonly used quotation from Protagoras.
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2. Nietzsche also discusses the overman in the section entitled "Why I Write
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Such Good Books" in _Ecce Homo_. I focus on _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_ not
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only because its discussion of the overman precedes _Ecce Homo_ but also
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because the former attempts to say what the overman is while the latter
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wants to say what it is not.
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3. I make this seemingly bold declaration in light of the fact that both _The
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Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche_ and _Oaklander's Existentialist
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Philosophy: An Introduction_ make citations from this particular
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translation.
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4. Nietzsche, Friedrich. _Beyond Good and Evil_. Translated by Walter
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Kaufmann. Random House: 1966. 62.
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5. Nietzsche, Friedrich. _Ecce Homo_. Translated by Walter Kaufmann. Random
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House: 1967. From "Why I Write Such Good Books."
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6. Nietzsche, Friedrich. _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_. Translated by Walter
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Kaufmann. Random House: 1966. 125.
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7. Nietzsche, Friedrich. _The Gay Science_. Translated by Walter Kaufmann.
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Random House: 1974. 335.
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-----------------------------<GwD Command Centers>------------------------------
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GwDweb: http://www.GREENY.org/
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ftp://ftp.GREENY.org/gwd/
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E-Mail: gwd@GREENY.org
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* GwD, Inc. - P.O. Box 16038 - Lubbock, Texas 79490 *
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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"I'm tired of your lip, boy."
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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-+- F Y M -+-
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GR33NY LIK3S mash3d p0tat03s
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MORE THAN FIVE YEARS of ABSOLUTE CRAP! /---------------\
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copyright (c) MM Bob the Master of the World/GwD Publications :LICK MY ASSHOLE:
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copyright (c) MM GwD, Inc. : GwD :
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All rights reserved \---------------/
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