Last man


 * For the novel by Mary Shelley, see The Last Man.

The Last Man (German: der letzte Mensch) was a term used by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche to describe the antithesis of his imagined superior being the "Übermensch". This 'Over Man' may be contrasted to a weak-willed individual, one who is tired of life, takes no risks, seeks only comfort and security. Nietzsche calls this passive being the Last Man.

Nietzsche saw that nothing great is possible for the Last Man, and It is Nietzsche's contention that Western civilization (Europe) is moving in the direction of the last man, an apathetic creature, who has no great passion or commitment, who is unable to dream, who merely earns his living and keeps warm..

The best literary example of this would be the "underground man" in Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground. Nietzsche wrote about the "last man" before he discovered Dostoevesky, but Dostoevesky's writing later influenced Nietzsche. Nietzsche claims that Dostoevesky was one of the few psychologists from whom he had learned something. Notes From Underground explores the psychology of a man whom Nietzsche would certainly consider a last man. The Underground man is a civil servant who has responded to nihilism with spitefulness. The underground man admits early in the novel that he is now so pathetic that he can no longer even be spiteful. The underground man is a kind of underman, the opposite of the overman. To Nietzsche, it is important to have diversity, people should pass judgement, be intolerant, and express differences in one another. The concept of the last man is about egality. Unification of differences where everything becomes equal, the same with each other. It is an expression of tolerance with one another. One therefore must squash any ideas of this egality or he would end up devaluing the idea itself. A simple example of this for instance would be if everyone got an A in course no matter the circumstance. This would then result in the students not bothering to show up for class, as it would be pointless. This makes it unfair for those who are struggling within the class to earn the A. With the coming of the last man is the onset of "nihilism," the negation of all values.

One of Nietzsche's greatest fears was creeping mediocrity. If the "Übermensch" represented his ideal -- the ideal of a being strong enough to create his own values, strong enough to live without the consolation of traditional morality -- then Nietzsche’s so called 'last man' is the exact opposite.

The last man, Nietzsche predicted, would be one response to nihilism. But the full implications of the death of God had yet to unfold. As he said:

"The event itself is far too great, too distant, too remote from the multitude's capacity for comprehension even for the tidings of it to be thought of having arrived as yet."