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Sublimation and the Übermensch
- The Journal of Nietzsche Studies
- Penn State University Press
- Volume 46, Issue 3, Autumn 2015
- pp. 349-366
- Article
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The demand for sublimation of one’s primitive and “evil” instincts plays a crucial role in Nietzsche’s ethics. But prominent misreadings of Nietzsche’s concept of sublimation have led to errors in interpreting his view of the highest type of man. I argue that Nietzsche’s view of sublimation is that it is the elevation of the objects of a drive through reinterpretation or reimagining them in such a way that the attainment of these new objects achieves a greater potency of expression for the drive while retaining its intrinsic aims. I also clarify the function of sublimation in his ethics.