Ubermensch is the over man or Superman of human evolution. The scientism of psychology would identify the ubermensch with the self actualized person. The difference between these two concepts is perhaps one of honesty and promoting disciplines. Self actualized person is promoted as an individual who achieves an internal healthy state. One who makes decisions without external influences that are always the best; this is the perfect person. Abraham Maslow considered himself just such a person and is considered the primary developer of the concept; however, in practice the self actualized person is simply a sociopath who never regrets their selfish choices and how they may impact others; they will just have to cope on their own. The Ubermensch has a mission to better his society over other societies. But, how did Nietzsche develop this concept? Who did he build upon? That is the discussion of this post.

Johann Gottfried von Herder is whom we shall begin our discussion in this post while the next post will discuss those who came before him. Our post, Hegelian Roots of Wokeness Religion, discussed how Herder developed the epic myth concept of a ethnic society based on poetry or stories from its ancient history. Today’s reader may more closely understand this concept from Homer’s Iliad-Odyssey poems which laid the foundation for Hellenistic (Greek) society. His epic poems of the Mycenaean, pre Hellenistic society, war against Troy were annual rituals of glory {κλέος} and honor {τιμή}. These epics also influenced the Roman society that conquered Greece who then sought to write their own modern epic poetry showing their greatness {The Aeneid by Virgil}. Herder sought to find epic poetry in the German people’s ancient past to give them an identity around which they could develop current unity and greatness. There was no Germany in the modern national sense until later in the 19th century after the Franco-Prussian War. Herder was also responsible for rejecting the irrationalness of religion for the rationalness of reason; thus, he was an advocate and apologist for the French Revolution, like Hegel. Herder developed the science and art of hermeneutics to analyze ancient works and to show the fallibility of the Bible. By destroying the absoluteness of the Bible he began the destruction of the absoluteness of the Bible’s rights and wrongs. This set a dangerous trend in German philosophical thought that festered throughout Western culture.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel grew from and built upon Herder’s tenets; especially in respect to being an apologist for the French Revolution and Napoleon. He also built upon Kant’s {Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis} dialectic to develop an early form of Critical Theory to make society better in the model of the French (Socialism) Revolution ideal. Hegel viewed the State as the ultimate arbiter of morality to develop a perfect society. He was the source for Marx’s socialism though Marx thought Hegel was too esoteric to be practical; he claimed to set Hegel’s theory on its head, make it practical. Marx was an atheistic Jew who sought to remove all religion from society. He devised a morality based on covetousness and forced redistribution by the State to develop an artificial equality of outcome. Once achieved this utopian socialism would morph into communism with the dissolution of the State.

Ludwig Feuerbach built upon the rejection of the Bible’s view of God begun during the Enlightenment; thus, he built upon the views of Herder and Hegel. He wrote that the Bible’s God was an illusion to justify man’s morality; i.e., to force people to behave as society dictates. He believed that man was the only true source of morality; thus, he legitimized Satan’s promise to Woman to be as god for only a god can determine right and wrong (Ge 3:5). Modern man no longer needed the trappings of religion but could agree amongst themselves right and wrong. Friedrich Schleiermacher and Ferdinand Christian Baur became leaders in developing higher criticism which sought to scientifically show the fallibility of the Bible and was instrumental in destroying the true Gospel in most Protestant churches which then embraced the Social Gospel movement which has become today’s Social Justice religion.

Friedrich Nietzsche actually only stated the obvious based on the work of these philosophers, and others too numerous to mention. If man was the author of morality and God only an illusion then the logical conclusion is, “God is dead…we {mankind} have killed him {no longer need him}!” Why? Because man has the ability to become the Ubermensch; in fact, those who have freed themselves from the constraints of irrationalism, including religions, will unite to form a super culture to guide others to their truths. This is akin to Plato’s Cave allegory in which the one who leaves the cave, frees themselves from the tyranny of the shadows, then reenters the cave to free others. Except, it did not work as envisioned just as Marx’s socialism.

Hitler’s Germany was built on the philosophies of these people but as crudely as the disciples of Marx violently initiated socialism on the graves of millions of people in the 20th century. His crude implementation and subsequent defeat have become metaphors for all that is evil. He used evolutionary science, being used elsewhere but not as crudely, to develop his Germanic epic Ubermansch and vilified an ethnic Jewish population to justify his program of changes. These techniques were rightly rejected but they were not discarded. They remain alive and well today.