The Will to Power

Nietzsche explores the concept of the “higher type” or “higher species” of humanity in more depth. In these sections, he examines the nature of the higher types, their relationship to ordinary people, or “the herd,” and how to encourage their development. Nietzsche argues that the growth of the global economy, and the increasing importance of machines in life and culture, will contribute to the homogenization of human beings. The growth of mechanization will also lead to an increased division of labor, forcing each individual to increasingly become a specialized cog in the economic machine. Nietzsche describes this process as a “dwarfing and adaptation of man to a specialized utility” (463-64).

However, there is also a counter tendency whereby what Nietzsche calls “overmen” come into being (463). In contrast to the narrow specialization of ordinary men, these overmen are synthesizing and holistic in their relation to the world. They bring together the highest human qualities of the past. By so doing, they give meaning to, and justify, the lives of the majority. The overmen cannot be assessed by ordinary criteria of social usefulness or a calculus of the benefits versus the costs they bring. To do this would be, Nietzsche says, “to appraise a work of art according to the effects it produces” (469).