The Process Of Becoming Superior Human Beings

In the aphorism Excelsior, meaning to go beyond an imposing height, of Book 4 of “The Gay Science” by Friedrich Nietzsche, Nietzsche encourages all human beings to transcend, to rise ever higher, ever upwards than before: to become superior human beings. Throughout the aphorism, Nietzsche explains to his audience how to transcend: to renounce the metaphysical world of the past and to abandon all its morals and values and to look up to ourselves to look for meanings, ideas and truths in the concrete world, to become masters of our own existence.

First, Nietzsche inspires all his readers, as equal human beings, to renounce all values, meanings and truths of the past. Earlier in the books, in New Struggles, Nietzsche proclaims that “God is dead. ” (Nietzsche 167) As such, before the death of God, God serves as a central authoritative figure, to whom all human beings look toward for meanings, truths and values in life. According to Nietzsche, “God is dead”, and, thereby, there is no longer a moral compass to look up towards. In the aphorism The madman, the madman says: “Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? ” (181) The lantern represents the light, created by human beings, to light our own way to replace the divine light that is no longer guiding us, now that “we have killed him” (181) to create our own meanings, ideas and truths in life. Nietzsche proclaims in Excelsior: “You will never pray again, never adore again, never again rest in endless trust: you do not permit yourself to stop before any ultimate wisdom, ultimate goodness, ultimate power. ” (229) Nietzsche inspires his readers to “never again rest in endless trust,” (229) to not be simply comforted by the light of God, for which the essence of human existence is given, but to renounce the values and morals God, a metaphysical being, has determined for us in order to transcend and become superior human beings.

Second, Nietzsche inspires all his readers, as equal human beings, to rise ever higher, upwards and to become Gods ourselves, masters of our own instead of looking up to a metaphysical world for meaning. According to Nietzsche, this is done by resisting “any ultimate peace,” a state of order in which God has created ethics and values, and by desiring “the eternal recurrence of war and peace,” a state in which it is not easy to live in, but where meanings and truths are determined by ourselves. By doing so, we do not obey the values created by a metaphysical being. Instead, we become masters of our own. Indeed, Nietzsche describes the current world where “you live without a view of mountains with snow on their peaks,” (229) a place where we do not see the purposes and meaning in our lives. By transcending and going higher than the mountains to be able to have a view of the peaks of mountains and our existence, we gain control over it by becoming superior human beings, and Gods ourselves, creating our own system of values, and thus, abandoning the values and meanings of life God has given us, as we have replaced him. In conclusion, Nietzsche conveys a new worldview from which values, meanings and truths should not be taken from a metaphysical being but from our own realities of human existence. Excelsior is an aphorism that illustrates that concept by inspiring readers to transcend and to become superior human beings by leaving behind the values of God, now that we have murdered him.