FROM THE COLD MONSTER TO THE BEYOND MAN. NIETZSCHEAN REFLECTIONS ON THE STATE

Abstract

The scope of Nietzsche’s thought touches on a variety of themes and problems, which, directly and indirectly, end up constituting a complex network. Therefore, the theme of the State is not absent from the complexity that comprises Nietzschean philosophizing, which is inferred from a broader theme, that of Politics. As a philosopher of culture, Nietzsche presents a diagnosis of politics, and this involves the need to interpose overcoming. It is not a movement to overcome institutions and other collective ways of thinking about culture, but of the individual, through his or her singular understanding. To do so, it is neces­sary to overcome ways in which, to a large extent, he ended up relying, whether through an understanding of an individual subjugated to the State, in the form of a cold monster dictating norms, or in the form of a gregarious morality that rises up against the State in the form of a democracy rebelling. Beyond these understandings of the State, based on authoritarian and democratic movements, Nietzsche’s reflection points to a movement that emerges from the individual in his or her affirmative disposition, capable of overcoming.

Keywords: Nietzsche. State. Politics. Beyond man. Overcoming.