Darwin, Nietsche And Genealogy

In the context of evolutionary thinking, the hierarchical ordering of organisms suggests that there
is a genealogy between the groups, that is, that there is a relationship of descent between them
from a more or less remote past; Obviously, the fossils are adapted to this same model: fossils of
the most recent times or close to our time must be related to each other in the smaller categories
of the hierarchical scale, that is, in genera and species, while those of the oldest ages would have
to be at the level of the larger categories, classes or phyla.

José Sarukhan

It is necessary, then, to turn to the historical spirit, it is necessary to resort to genealogy and, more
specifically, to etymology- What do words mean, and what is the history of their intellectual
metamorphosis?

Andrés Sánchez Pascual

If there is, a concept or definition that can link both Darwin and Nietzsche, I think it is genealogy.
Although the two thinkers use it in different contexts, the purpose or utility is the same: that there
is a beginning that will determine the existence of the human being.

One of Darwin's achievements was to give a philosophical sense to science. When I speak
philosophically, I mean the philosophical anthropology with which Darwin covered his research on
natural selection in species. By moving away from metaphysics, that is, by abandoning the idea
that there was a Creator, Darwin opened the way to try to answer the question, how were species
changing over time?

From the romantic movement, Darwin takes his fascination to know the origin of feelings, of our
human nature. Similarly, unable to study what we cannot know, Darwin takes a utilitarian turn,
that is, it seems that in nature there is some kind of dialectic. This dialectic cycle is based on
aesthetics, the animal being chooses who to reproduce based on aesthetic criteria. The
observation, in animal species, led Darwin to conclude that his conclusions would also evolve over
time. Darwin's scientific truths would enter into a confrontation or dialectic circle, from which
another truth would emerge. Thanks to the analysis of his research, we can say that Darwin is a
mixture of empiricism, utilitarianism and romanticism.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this short article, genealogy, it is the word that sums up in its
anthropological aspect, the thought of these two researchers. Although Professor Roth thinks that
the idea that defines Nietzsche's thinking is: God is dead; it seems to me that there is another
central aspect in Nietzschian thought, the Übermensch (supra man). In fact, the supra man of
Nietzsche, is nothing other than the evolution of the consciousness of man after the death of God.

Nietzsche says: “The sick man asks for an explanation of his pain, and only finds one who gives it to
him: the priest.” The new truth of this third treaty is the following: “the priest is a doctor who
poisons the wounds of his patients by healing them. And all this has happened because on earth
there has been no more than a single ideal so far. But man prefers to want even nothing to not
want". But now, Nietzsche adds, “there is a new ideal: that of the superman”.
It may not be necessary to summarize the first and second essay of the Genealogy of morals. The
important thing is to see how Nietzche through a genealogical process, tries to trace what is the
moral origin of man. For Nietzsche, it is clear: that moral origin is God or the ideal. That is why it is
necessary for God to die, so that through his death, as in the Greek pagan myths, that death brings
a new birth, the birth of the new man, a man whose morals are the product of his own values, a
man who Be able to live without the metaphysical ideal that causes guilt.