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Single Idea 20358

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / f. Übermensch ]

Full Idea

The highest man has the greatest multiplicity of drives, in the relatively greatest strength that can be endured. Indeed, when the plant 'man' shows himself strongest one finds instincts that conflict powerfully (e.g. in Shakespeare), but are controlled.

Gist of Idea

The highest man can endure and control the greatest combination of powerful drives

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §966)

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Will to Power', ed/tr. Kaufmann,W /Hollingdate,R [Vintage 1968], p.507


A Reaction

Are there some people, perhaps in mental hospitals, who cannot endure or control such things? Do these people have some drives which the rest of us never experience? Do good people only have good drives?


The 18 ideas with the same theme [moral visionaries as the source of ethical systems]:

Plato found that he could only enforce rational moral justification by creating an authoritarian society [Williams,B on Plato]
For the great-souled man it is sometimes better to be dead [Aristotle]
Every species produces exceptional beings, and we must just accept their nature [Epictetus]
Christianity is at war with the higher type of man, and excommunicates his basic instincts [Nietzsche]
Nietzsche's judgement of actions by psychology instead of outcome was poisonous [Foot on Nietzsche]
Noble people see themselves as the determiners of values [Nietzsche]
Caesar and Napoleon point to the future, when they pursue their task regardless of human sacrifice [Nietzsche]
Napoleon was very focused, and rightly ignored compassion [Nietzsche]
Higher human beings see and hear far more than others, and do it more thoughtfully [Nietzsche]
The concept of 'good' was created by aristocrats to describe their own actions [Nietzsche]
A strong rounded person soon forgets enemies, misfortunes, and even misdeeds [Nietzsche]
Originally it was the rulers who requited good for good and evil for evil who were called 'good' [Nietzsche]
There is an extended logic to a great man's life, achieved by a sustained will [Nietzsche]
The highest man can endure and control the greatest combination of powerful drives [Nietzsche]
The highest man directs the values of the highest natures over millenia [Nietzsche]
The superman is a monstrous oddity, not a serious idea [MacIntyre on Nietzsche]
Nietzsche's higher type of man is much more important than the idealised 'superman' [Nietzsche, by Leiter]
The noble man wants new virtues; the good man preserves what is old [Nietzsche]