Can One Really Become a "Free Spirit Par Excellence" or an Übermensch?

This essay deals critically with Friedrich Nietzsche's anthropological typology of the free spirit par excellence, we spirits (wir freie Geister), persons endowed with positive as opposed to negative power patterns, and the ideal of the Übermensch. The conclusions are twofold. The first, and quite surprising, finding is that it is not Nietzsche's ideal of the Overman that is the pinnacle of his anthropological philosophy but, rather, the even more ideal type of the "free spirit par excellence." The second, and less surprising, conclusion is that it is impossible to envisage a society consisting of such "free spirits." This thesis will be highlighted by contrasting the Übermenschen, who, according to Nietzsche, might live in society and even need it as a sine qua non for their cultivation, to free spirits par excellence, who, by definition, are free from social ethos and hence impossible within its framework. We will see, however, that on Nietzsche's terms the ideal of the Übermensch is also not viable in society. Hence this essay points to an inherent flaw in Nietzsche's existential philosophy: namely, the nonviability of its most sublime ideals.

Nonetheless, Nietzsche held the view that a philosophy that cannot be existentially lived or experimented with is empty and redundant. Thus, if the free spirit par excellence cannot become a social "is," what is the point in presenting it as a moral "ought"? Moreover, Nietzsche in his essay "Schopenhauer as Educator" claims that if we face an unbridgeable gap between our most cherished ideals and our human, all-too-human selves and circumstances, our motivations to attain such ideals will diminish. And if we agree that one of Nietzsche's objectives was to entice his readers (what he called Versuchung) to dare and activate their positive mental resources and personal authenticity (what he called Wahrhaftigkeit) for embracing positive power patterns—doesn't this claim clash with the nonviability of the ideal of a free spirit par excellence? Does it make any sense to entice somebody to attain a goal that, by definition, is utterly unachievable? Thus, one has to speculate about Nietzsche's reasons for introducing such an ideal in the first place, an ideal that he himself thought to be existentially impractical.

As far as I can tell, very few in the vast literature on Nietzsche have paid sufficient attention to his distinction between the "free spirit par excellence" and "we free spirits," though this distinction is vital for grasping the far-reaching ramifications of his anthropological philosophy.¹ I emphasize the last term to stress that this article does not deal with the metaphysical dimensions of Nietzsche's philosophy inherent in his notion of the will to power as emphasized, for example, by Heidegger's reading of it.

The "Free Spirit Par Excellence" Is Not "We Free Spirits"

Nietzsche's descriptions of persons whom he calls the "free spirit par excellence" and "we free spirits" are few and take considerably less space than his delineation of the Übermensch. And indeed, as we shall see, these existential ideals of Nietzsche's mature philosophy are intimately connected.

One of the most detailed portraits of the free spirit par excellence is provided in 347 of The Gay Science.² Nietzsche speaks in this text in categorical terms and emphasizes the total "freedom of the will" that makes "the spirit . . . take leave of all faith and every wish for certainty" (GS 347, emphasis added). He stresses the ability of this spirit of "dancing even near abysses," namely, of being able to be genuinely creative even in very precarious circumstances, such as times of cultural and intellectual crises, when no rational criteria are valid anymore and when there is no metaphysical or transcendental guarantee for any truth or worldview.

In this section another essential characteristic of the free spirit par excellence is depicted: its "power of self-determination" that successfully resists any external foci for its personal identity. In Nietzsche's words, it manifests complete freedom from "a god, prince, class, physician, father confessor, dogma, or party conscience" (GS 347). Such spirits spontaneously create their own personal authenticity...