Eugenics and the superman : a racial science, and a racial religion / by Maximilian A. Mügge.

  • Mügge, Maximilian A. (Maximilian August), 1878-1963.
Date:
[between 1910 and 1919?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Eugenics and the superman : a racial science, and a racial religion / by Maximilian A. Mügge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    t EUGENICS AND THE SUPERMAN : A RACIAL SCIENCE, AND A RACIAL RELIGION By Maximilian A. Mugge Many of Nietzsche’s adherents oppose the idea that their master conceived of the “ Superman ” as “ a new Darwinian species ” ; rather with Frau Foerster-Nietzsche, his sister, they regard his ideal as “ the possibility of a renewed Graeco-Roman mode of valuations, refined, and deepened by two thousand years discipline of Christianity—a possibility attainable by present humanity.” I think it best to avoid discussing that wearisome question, and the few extracts from Nietzsche appended to this paper will, I am sure, help the reader to arrive at a conclusion of his own. Personally I am convinced that the most reasonable and promising equation is this : the Superman—a racial ideal! In the Fortnightly Review (September, 1909) there is a passage by Sidney Low: “ Not the Cult of the Unfit, nor the Extinction of the Unfit, but the increase of Fitness by the improvement of the environment, is the Sociocratic ideal, the goal at which the Greater Protection is aiming.” I do not agree with Low’s method as to how this “ increase of Fitness ” is to be brought about; rather, with Schallmeyer, do I hold that environmental influences deter¬ mine the individual or cytogenetic much more than the generative or phylogenetic development. But I agree with Low in calling the “ increase of Fitness ” the “ Sociocratic ideal.” By a steady “ increase of Fitness ” we shall reach a higher race. Very, very slowly ; yet we shall reach it. May I remind the reader of Tennyson’s words : “ So many a million of ages have gone to the making of man: He now is first, but is he the last ? is he not too base ? ” Man at present is too base and we must aim at the production of a higher race. And how shall we name it ? Many hate the hybrid word “ Superman ” and would prefer the term “ Overman.” What’s in a name ? We might call the race of supermen the