Indywidualistyczne ujęcie problematyki historiozoficznej w twórczości Thomasa Carlyle’a i Friedricha Nietzschego

In the following article I would like to present how Thomas Carlyle’s and Friedrich Nietzsche’s radically individualistic vision of a human being determined their historiosophic ideas. Both Carlyle and Nietzsche tried to describe certain characteristics of a free and non-conformist individual and a peculiar position they had held throughout the centuries. Carlyle divided people into ‘hero’ and ‘valet’ types. Nietzsche mentioned aristocratic individuals and slaves who were powerful only in a group. What both precursors of modernism unanimously discerned, was the unprecedented crisis of humanity and human culture. They claimed that only those who overcome the weaknesses of the self and exceed everything which is ‘poor’ in a human being, can maintain their dignity. Carlyle believed that going beyond what is ‘pettily’ human may be achieved by a spiritually uplifting heroism. Nietzsche, on the other hand, aimed to find the measures of rising ‘above’ by looking for the Übermensch who loves and prices his fate and strengthens their own will.

Zeszyty Naukowe TDUJ