English subtitles for clip: File:Ikusgela-Nietzsche.webm

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The Superman.

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It is a bird?

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It is a plane?

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No

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The Superman (or
Übermensch) is a

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philosophical concept,
developed by Nietzsche.

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And who is the Superman?

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The one who overcomes the
weaknesses given by human attitudes,

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and affirms life.

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But to understand
what Nietzsche meant,

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we have to travel
to the 19th century.

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Friedrich Nietzsche was born in
1844 in what was then Prussia.

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The end of the 19th century

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was a time of revolutions.

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The liberal revolution,
the industrial revolution,

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but also a time of
scientific revolution.

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Darwin's theory of evolution

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turned upside down
the understanding of

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relationship between
human beings and nature:

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after all, the
human-animal is an animal,

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one among many others.

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In this context
Romanticism develops:

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romanticism questions the centrality
that reason had in the Enlightenment,

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and praised
passion and feelings.

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Nietzsche's work can also be
placed in that line of thought.

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For several years he was among
intellectuals and university circles,

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but his most fruitful years
were spent away from there.

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In 1878 he abandoned
his old friends,

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and he devoted all
of his time to thought.

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In 1889,

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he had a mental breakdown
that led to dementia,

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and he spent his next few years under
the care of his sister, until his death.

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Nietzsche's thought can be
summarized in 5 main ideas.

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1- The forces of life:
Apollo and Dionysus.

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For Nietzsche, in life there
are two types of forces.

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He used the names of the Greek gods
Apollo and Dionysus to tell them apart.

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Apollo represents the Sun,
beauty, reason and measure.

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Dionysus, on the other side:

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chaos, pleasure,
drunkenness and excess.

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That's why he says that life is
both Apollonian and Dionysian:

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It is Apollonian,
because life is beautiful,

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because it can be taken in moderation
and "decorate" with beautiful shapes;

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but it is also Dionysian.

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Because life, in its depth,

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moves with chaotic forces,

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forces that are
uncontrollable and excessive.

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2- Will to power

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For Nietzsche the engine of
the world is the will to power.

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It is found in all natural
forces, also in humans.

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All living beings have the goals
of surviving, going on, expanding,

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showing their strength, and
changing the rest of forces.

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The desire for power
is an endless desire, a

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kind of inner strength
of objects and beings,

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that needs to be
continually outsourced.

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And how is it outsourced?

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Through creativity.

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Creating, changing
and destroying.

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Creativity is not only human,
however, all forces have it.

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3- Nihilism: a
disease to overcome.

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Surely, Nietzsche is one of the most
critic with Christian values and culture,

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as he did it deeply.

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He announced that "God is dead",

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showing that, without God, our
entire value system is up in the air.

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Values are given
by humans to things,

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and so,

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we have to be ourselves
who give value to life again,

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to get out of the
situation of slavery.

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Nietzsche invites
us out of the herd.

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Nihilism, by definition,

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it is a current that denies
the meaning and value of life.

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According to nihilism, life does not
have, and cannot have, any meaning.

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For Nietzsche, however, the
only value to follow is life itself,

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including its chaotic
and Dionysian part.

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He considers the entire
philosophical tradition

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initiated by Plato
and Socrates nihilistic,

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because they took false
values to give meaning to life:

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the Good and the
Truth, for example.

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For Nietzsche,

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Judeo-Christian religions
have exalted slave morality.

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In society, those who are strong and
have power are morally underestimated,

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and war is declared on
sex, instincts and feelings.

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That creates a docile,
obedient and formal human.

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A slave, after all.

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He criticized both:

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rationalism, which tries to
give a rational meaning to life,

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and the opposite, nihilism, where there
are no values, and nothing has value.

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4- Vitalism

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Faced with nihilism, Nietzsche
proposes another point of view:

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vitalism.

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The world is not ordered

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the world is movement, an endless
accumulation of chaotic forces.

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Through science we imagine
these forces in a harmonious way,

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but that is only an illusion.

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According to vitalism, life is
the goal and its main value.

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Nietzsche,

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in addition to reason,
the body, the instinct,

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values also irrationality,
nature, strength, and survival.

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In other words:

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accept life as it is,
chaotic and uncontrollable.

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5- Superman.

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For Nietzsche nihilism is created
from a position of human weakness.

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The slave is opposed by
the Superman or Übermensch:

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a strong human
being who affirms life,

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that follows his will to power,

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and follows
self-improvement as a law.

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It is not under religion,

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but neither under
moral values or reason.

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Superman wants to live,

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be free, get to be themself.

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From the point of
view of the Superman,

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freedom is the activity
of a strong self-will.

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Whoever it is under
universal norms and morals

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it is weak and it
will get weaker.

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We cannot fail to mention
the development of these ideas

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after Nietzsche's death.

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After his death, his sister
took ownership of his work,

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and being anti-Semitic
and close to Nazism,

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she made an effort to place his
ideology at the service of Nazi thought.

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Therefore,

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Nietzsche's thought

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also contributed to the development
of Nazism and anti-Semitism.

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That is not to say, however,
that Nietzsche was a Nazi.

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Moreover, we know
that, in his late years,

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he rejected Germany's
nationalist and anti-Semitic drift.

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From there we can
also learn something:

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not even the most intelligent
philosophers have control over

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the path their ideas
will take in the future.