Nietzsche as an evolutionist I shall have occasion to define and discuss in the course of these notes (see Notes on Chapter LVI., par. 10, and on Chapter LVII.). For the present let it suffice for us to know that he accepted the “Development Hypothesis” as an explanation of the origin of species: but he did not halt where most naturalists have halted. He by no means regarded man as the highest possible being which evolution could arrive at; for though his physical development may have reached its limit, this is not the case with his mental or spiritual attributes. If the process be a fact; if things have BECOME what they are, then, he contends, we may describe no limit to man’s aspirations. If he struggled up from barbarism, and still more remotely from the lower Primates, his ideal should be to surpass man himself and reach Superman (see especially the Prologue).
criticism · Notes: Introductory Remarks
Evolution points beyond man to Superman
Ludovici says that Nietzsche accepted the theory of evolution but denied that man is its final product: since man's spiritual development has no evident limit, his ideal should be to surpass himself and reach the Superman, as the Prologue teaches.
On Zarathustra
- The Superman (Übermensch)Reads the Superman as the continuation of evolution in man's mental and spiritual attributes.