Race as a philosophical problem in Nietzsche’s writings

Abstract

The article aims to elucidate the role played by “race” in Nietzsche's writings. Nietzsche’s concept of “race” is analyzed and interpreted together with his lexicon of the transformation of the human being and his critique of culture. The concept of “race” is studied together with other adjacent concepts and similar ideas such as the treatment of the Jewish question, his criticism of nationalism, the figure of good Europeans, the metaphor of the blond beast, the human types and the thought of breeding. It is concluded that “race” has an unquestionable physiological and evolutionary character, but through the process of incorporation (Einverleibung), culture and morals intervene in a fundamental way in their formation, and as a concept, “race” is expressed as an analytical tool in the heart of the project of the transvaluation of all values, the reform of culture and humanity. The article ends with a reflection on Nietzsche’s call to overcome race (Über-Rasse).