(Regarding Nitche) It is popularly done so but I’ve just read a article by a philosophy populiser which claims that superman is not a correct interpretation. What say the minions?
“Superman” is, at least, a misleading translation if it makes you think of the superhero. (Nietzsche, of course, predates the comic book character.) Was this the writer’s point? Did he/she suggest a better translation?
Over man.
I always thought “mencsh” had connotations of simple, common, everyday. In other words; an ordinary, everyday person.
Of course, that could just be due to a fantasy series I read as a kid.
That, I suspect, comes from the Yiddish usage. In High German, “Mensch” is just the generic for “human being” (hence, perhaps, the shift of emphasis you refer to). So you could alternatively translate Übermensch as “superhuman”. I have no idea if Nietzsche entertained the notion that his Übermensch could be female as well as male, but “superhuman” implies something rather different from “superman” - even without the cartoon image.
Superman to me implies he is above man. But the word über in the contexts I’ve heard it means more like “ultimate version of.” And, yes, the term is likely genderless.
So I’d think a better translation would be “ultimate human.”
In the sense that it’s used by Nietzsche, “Superior Person” or “Higher Person” would be a better translation than “Superman” for modern readers.
Makes me wonder how many people have landed up in theGB Shawplay expecting something … different.
It seems the official German name for the comic character Superman is “Superman.”
Which leaves “uber mensch” free to mean something completely different.
Interesting because Superman is not actually a man, or a mensch. Well, in the Yiddish sense I guess he’d be kind of a mensch if he was actually a man.
ETA: Also that play really disappointed me when I was kid. Not at all what I expected.
Now that the OP is answered, time for Übermann…
I’d say that reading a philosophy populiser is much more rewarding than reading Nitche (in translation)
Even apart from the obvious translation issue, everything Nitche wrote was opaque to me… If it hadn’t been for the introduction, whatever Mitche meant would have been completely lost on me.
Almost nothing really translates between languages. Shades of meaning are impossible to translate in complex writing.
I seem to recall a Cheers episode in which Sam heard something about Shaw’s Man and Superman, and said to himself, “I wonder if that’s the one where he fights the Mole People?”
“Mensch” in Yiddish means “an honorable person,” “a person of integrity.” If you want to compliment someone, you might say “He’s a real mensch.”
In other words, a superior person*.
*However, it does not denote that someone is smart, or strong, or physically superior, just that they’re morally ethical.
You don’t tug on UberMensch’s cape!
Also in some context would mean the guy is sucker. He might be taken in by trusting in the decency of others. Yet not someone who would be scammed by entering into an illicit agreement either, just the someone who believes that guy is actually stuck at the highway rest stop and needs a few bucks to buy gas.
And you don’t mess around with Friedrich.
Can you provide a cite for it being used this way? I’ve never heard it except in the sense I gave. Freier is the word used for “sucker” in Yiddish.
I can’t drag my relatives back from grave, but sucker is too strong of a word. A mensch is not a schlemiel, but he is someone who may take a hit trying to do the right thing. It’s Yiddish, it’s all in how you say it.
Ubermensch clearly means SUPERIOR MAN, in the context of Nietzsche. And it means superior as in unquestionable natural authority, not as in “having higher skills,” or as in “nicer than the average bear.”