The Superhuman: Friedrich Nietzsche vs. Alexander Bogdanov

Identificator

EDN: OVJCNV ; УДК: 1(091)

Authors

Korotysheva Natalia Nikolaevna, PhD in Philosophy, associate professor of the Department of Cultural Studies, Sociology and Philosophy, Vyatka State University. Russia, Kirov. ResearcherID: V-2261-2018. ORCID: 0000-0002-8646-5794. E-mail: nnpoluyan@inbox.ru

Journal

HERALD OF VYATKA STATE UNIVERSITY №2 (156), 2025

Section

PHILOSOPHICAL SCIENCES. PANEL DISCOURSE "RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHY: AN EXPERIENCE WITH POLYPHONY"

Pages

44-49

Abstract

The theme of the human, and consequently of the "superhuman," appears to be key in philosophical research, and it is especially relevant today, as humanity is being increasingly drawn into a "future without the human," into posthumanism. This article provides a comparative analysis of the views on the human and its future by the German thinker Friedrich Nietzsche and the Russian philosopher and scientist A. A. Bogdanov (Malinovsky) along two lines: the critique of the "inferiority" of modern humans and the necessity of overcoming their flawed condition through a transition to the "superhuman," and the prospects for building a future human society. While within the first line of inquiry the beliefs of both authors can be considered largely identical: the modern human is sick, spiritually fragmented, and therefore the "superhuman" is a "whole," healthy human; the priority of practical, "living" thought and contempt for "armchair," academic philosophy; a pronounced interest in the problem of human corporeality through the themes of sacrifice, blood, and the struggle for life; a kind of anti-immortalism within the problem of the meaning of human existence then in matters of constructing the further development of human culture, the two thinkers act as antagonists. This is due, on the one hand, to the uncertainty and imagery of Friedrich Nietzsche's exposition, which led to numerous varied interpretations, versus the clarity and specificity of the language of the scientist A. A. Bogdanov, and on the other hand, and this is the main point, the difference between the Russian and European philosophical traditions: Russian, national philosophy does not favor suffering and evil, insisting on the possibility of human justification and salvation, and also links the future of the human with a collective, conciliar, fraternal principle. Both these tendencies found their embodiment in the categories of "co-joy" and "comradeship" in the philosophical anthropology of the socialist A. A. Bogdanov.

Keywords

superhuman Friedrich Nietzsche A. A. Bogdanov (Malinovsky) anthropology Russian Marxism

Recieved

07.10.2025

Published

14.04.2026

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