Abstract:
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) had a prominent place in shaping the
thinking pattern of the 20th century, especially in the Continental Europe. His
anthropology is based on creating a ‘new man’ who would come out of all the
barriers of morality, religion and other value systems. This new man is called
by other thinkers as ‘Nietzschean Man’ who has a total contrast of the
characteristics of the ‘Christian Man’. This paper is not comparing both of
them; rather the primary characteristics of ‘Nietzschean Man’ is dealt with to
show that Nietzsche’s anthropology is overwhelmed with ‘will’ in
contraposition to the traditional Christian anthropology which had been
substantially ‘mind’ centered. Nietzsche attacked the dualistic view of the
human being as body and mind and affirmed that both are one. According to
him, human life is driven fundamentally by a will-to-power, a drive more
powerful and more primal than the pleasure instinct. Will-to-power is what
Nietzsche identifies as the most basic driving force of all living beings. The
concept of the will-to-power, offers a universal perspective on human nature.
Nietzsche’s attacks on the ‘Christian Man’ has to be understood as his attempt
to create a new man based on his new anthropology eliminated from the doom
of the dualism of mind and body.
