Super

The term 'superman' was popularized by the comic strip character of that name, with later television and film versions. In the process, it also likely propagated usage of the prefix 'super'. The latter means 'above', and despite its ancillary linguistic function, can be ideologically revelatory. For example, in American culture, what is 'above man' is a being with extraordinary strength that can defy the law of gravity. In other words, it is an image that expresses aspirations with respect to physicality. In contrast, the original coiner of the term 'superman', in German, was Nietzsche, for whom it connoted an entirely different ideal. His version was a being who loved life so much that they would want to live the same, in every detail, life over and over again, eternally. The superiority of this entity to humans is psychological, not physical, entailing Nietzsche's diagnosis of the merely human of his culture as having degenerated into an escapism incapable of bearing the full awareness of the life that one has lived. Furthermore, this diagnosis indicts the Theological tradition of this culture as a primary cause of the disease, with its promotion of an 'afterlife' that is a 'better place' than earthly existence. So, the second significant aspect of his term 'superman' is its contrast with 'supernatural'. The literal meaning of the latter, in contrast with the current connotations of 'ghostly', 'occult', 'eerie', etc., is 'above nature', hence meaning, more accurately, 'non-natural'. In the Theological tradition that Nietzsche was challenging, 'supernatural' referred first and foremost to the realm of the Christian God, so he intended 'superman' to be not confused with 'supernatural', to constitute an ideal for humans to aspire to that did not entail an escape from the vicissitudes of the natural world, to serve as a new mythology that would replace the one that, if not already dead, was in its twilight.