Neither Ubermensch nor Last Man: Gene Therapy and the Goodness of Finitude
Brett McCarty, Th.D. Student, Duke Divinity School
Over a century ago, Friedrich Nietzsche prophesied the coming of the Übermensch, the superman who will exceed all prior known forms of humanity. Nietzsche’s desire for the coming of this kind of existence flowed largely from his disdain for the “last men,” bourgeois weaklings with no capacity for greatness. In the time since Nietzsche’s death, however, the “last men” have done much in the name of progress, and are now in a position to create supermen and superwomen through genetic manipulation.
In my paper, I argue that the legacy of Nietzsche’s disgust at ordinary life has joined forces with modern manifestations of a bourgeois understanding of progress to create a cultural context inhospitable to those suffering from disabilities and chronic illness. Desire for greatness, defined by such fickle terms as health, beauty, and intelligence, is lived out vicariously in the next generation as parents attempt to live out their dreams through their children. The advent of the possibility of genetic enhancement through preimplantation screening and manipulation of embryos creates the prospect of a brave new world defined by genetic ability.
I propose that such efforts flow from a fundamental dissatisfaction with our finitude as human creatures. The descendants of both the Nietzschean superman and the “last man” are unable to accept the goodness of finite existence, and so are always looking to overcome it. From Gilles Deleuze, who explicitly named DNA and technology as sites of hope for his dream of “unlimited finity,” to present-day eugenicists, gene therapy is presented as an answer to the “problem” of limited existence. After chronicling this modern dissatisfaction with our finite bodies, I close my paper with a contrasting vision drawn from Christian theologian David Kelsey’s recent work, Eccentric Existence, where he draws from Wisdom literature to argue that the finitude of our bodies is integral to our creaturely goodness. For Kelsey, the goodness of life is realized in (and not despite) all the contingent and messy particularity of embodied existence, and so offers an account of human flourishing that does not desire to transcend our bodies. In contrast to many of the assumptions undergirding gene therapy, this position is capable of valuing the lives of the disabled and chronically ill. In this way, Nietzsche’s Übermensch and the progress of the bourgeois “last men” are answered by the goodness of ordinary life, in all its mysteriously finite glory.
Over a century ago, Friedrich Nietzsche prophesied the coming of the Übermensch, the superman who will exceed all prior known forms of humanity. Nietzsche’s desire for the coming of this kind of existence flowed largely from his disdain for the “last men,” bourgeois weaklings with no capacity for greatness. In the time since Nietzsche’s death, however, the “last men” have done much in the name of progress, and are now in a position to create supermen and superwomen through genetic manipulation.
In my paper, I argue that the legacy of Nietzsche’s disgust at ordinary life has joined forces with modern manifestations of a bourgeois understanding of progress to create a cultural context inhospitable to those suffering from disabilities and chronic illness. Desire for greatness, defined by such fickle terms as health, beauty, and intelligence, is lived out vicariously in the next generation as parents attempt to live out their dreams through their children. The advent of the possibility of genetic enhancement through preimplantation screening and manipulation of embryos creates the prospect of a brave new world defined by genetic ability.
I propose that such efforts flow from a fundamental dissatisfaction with our finitude as human creatures. The descendants of both the Nietzschean superman and the “last man” are unable to accept the goodness of finite existence, and so are always looking to overcome it. From Gilles Deleuze, who explicitly named DNA and technology as sites of hope for his dream of “unlimited finity,” to present-day eugenicists, gene therapy is presented as an answer to the “problem” of limited existence. After chronicling this modern dissatisfaction with our finite bodies, I close my paper with a contrasting vision drawn from Christian theologian David Kelsey’s recent work, Eccentric Existence, where he draws from Wisdom literature to argue that the finitude of our bodies is integral to our creaturely goodness. For Kelsey, the goodness of life is realized in (and not despite) all the contingent and messy particularity of embodied existence, and so offers an account of human flourishing that does not desire to transcend our bodies. In contrast to many of the assumptions undergirding gene therapy, this position is capable of valuing the lives of the disabled and chronically ill. In this way, Nietzsche’s Übermensch and the progress of the bourgeois “last men” are answered by the goodness of ordinary life, in all its mysteriously finite glory.