n. the usual English translation of the German word Ubermensch, introduced by Friedrich Nietzsche. For Nietzsche, the superman represents an ideal type of human life, one who brings into reality the most creative and powerful attributes of humanity, who seizes life courageously in response to the Wille zur Macht (see will to power), and who avoids the “slave mentality” that Nietzsche took to be characteristic of the culture of his time. As Nietzsche considered few capable of such affirmative, authentic living, the ideal is essentially aristocratic and nondemocratic. Although the concept has no racial elements, the Nazis later used it to affirm the supposed superiority of the Aryan race and to justify aggression and oppressive racial policies.