Vigorously attacking Christianity and democracy as moralities for the "weak herd," he argued for the "natural aristocracy" of the superman who, driven by the "will to power," celebrates life on earth rather than sanctifying it for some heavenly reward. Such a heroic man of merit has the courage to "live dangerously" and thus rise above the masses, developing his natural capacity for the creative use of passion.
Although these ideas were distorted by the Nazis in order to justify their conception of the master race, to regard Nietzsche's philosophy as a prototype of nazism is erroneous. His criticism of the mediocrity and smugness of German culture led to a disintegration of his friendship with Richard Wagner as well as to a disassociation from his beloved Germany. To correct any misconceptions concerning the superman, Nietzsche published Beyond Good and Evil (1886; Eng. trans., 1967) and On the Genealogy of Morals (1887; Eng. trans., 1968).
Nietzsche became increasingly deranged in his later years. In 1889 he suffered a severe breakdown, from which he never recovered. His later writings are particularly strident; although more forceful than his earlier essays and books, they retain clear continuity with his earlier ideas. In the collection of essays published posthumously under the title The Will to Power (1901; Eng. trans., 1967), Nietzsche further developed his ideas of the superman and the will to power, asserting that humans must learn to live without their gods or any other metaphysical consolations. Like Goethe's Faust, humans must incorporate their devil and evolve "beyond good and evil." -- by Thomas E. Wren
