Zarathustra and the Economy of the Overman

Abstract

Laurence Lampert has offered some helpful comments about Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Zarathustra is, he argues, ‘the only book that affords entry into Nietzsche’s essential thought’.¹ In other words, and leaving aside the fact that he had another three productive years left after writing Part IV of Zarathustra, the work can be taken as representing the definitive expression of Nietzsche’s philosophy.² For Lampert, Zarathustra is a work whose underlying intention is to clarify both why the kind of teaching concerning human excellence Nietzsche extols is required and what this teaching is. The work, says Lampert, begins by offering the ‘provisional presentation of an unfinished teaching’ in which Zarathustra develops his idea of the Übermensch (the ‘overman’ or ‘superman’) and finds disciples who may serve to prepare for this (Part I). It then moves to an exposition of the teaching that will lead to the overman — a teaching which, it turns out, leads to Zarathustra abandoning his disciples (Part II). The teaching is then fulfilled in the announcement of eternal recurrence and will to power in Part III.³ Part IV of Zarathustra, Lampert persuasively argues, ‘violates the ending of Part III’, which is in fact the genuine conclusion of the text.⁴ Part IV, he points out, was not intended for public consumption at the time of writing.

But tell me, my brothers, if humanity still lacks a goal — is humanity itself not still lacking too?

(Thus Spoke Zarathustra, ‘Of the Thousand and One Goals’)