260 Nietzsche
encouraged will discover a positive direction. Each model functions as
an encouragement to itself Guided by these models, we need to reach
beyond ourselves to realize our full potential. We can find our true selves
not within ourselves, Nietzsche wrote at that time, but above ourselves:
"Your true being does not lie buried deep within you, but rather immea-
surably high above you or at least above what you normally take to be
your ego" (l,340f; SE § 1). We should therefore not betray our better
selves (which we are by becoming better selves). We can and should
expect something from ourselves, not just from life in general. We
should be able to maintain high personal expectations and keep to these
expectations, of which we are the unrealized embodiment. The will to
the Übermensch is already at work in any attempt at self-configuration that
seeks enhancement.
This meaning of the Übermensch has not addressed the issue of biol-
ogy, but it does take into account the autoplastic powers of the human
mind and man's capability for ascending self-control and self-configura-
tion. Nietzsche had already formulated a conceptual model of the Über-
mensch in Human, All Too Human: "You should become the master of
yourself and also the master of your own virtues. Previously they were
your masters, but they must be nothing more than your tools, just some
tools among others. You should achieve power over your pros and cons
and learn how to put them forth and hang them back in accordance with
your higher aim" (2,20; HH I Preface § 6). Zarathustra has this Über-
mensch in mind when he proclaims: "I love the one who has a free spirit
and a free heart" (4,18; Ζ First Part, Prologue § 4).
The Übermensch's mastery of self-configuration is not the only issue
here. There are also biologistic overtones in Zarathustra's speeches,
especially when he explains that man in his current form evolved from
the ape, but that there is still too much of the ape in him and too much
laziness, which wants to revert to the animal kingdom. Man is a creature
in transition. He is still in flux between the ape from which he originated
and the Übermensch into which he may evolve. "What is the ape to man?
A laughing stock or a painful embarrassment. And this is exacdy what