General Introduction
Man by nature it has been said is an insatiable being. He is never satisfied and fulfilled within any particular state. He wants always to move beyond his present condition and consequently realize himself in the ultimate end. In other words, man seeks to transcend himself in all his activities. Man is never a static and motionless being that remains constant at any particular position. He is rather gifted with those qualities that make him an active being full of potentialities and capabilities. What then is self-transcendence? It is that characteristic movement of man in which he continually surpasses himself, in all that he is, all he wishes and all that he has. I mean it is that constant tendency possessed by man to always go beyond the already acquired situation in search of the supreme cause of his being, his primary origin and what should be the final end.
With regard to this, some solutions were given for the essence of self-transcendence and egocentricism is one of them. This was however developed by modern and contemporary philosophy, above all by the representative of the existentialist current, beginning with Nietzsche. In this project therefore, attempt is made to examine the egocentric interpretation of self-transcendence in man in the light of its greatest exponent and defender by name Friedrich Nietzsche.
Statement Of The Problem
Nietzsche has the belief that man, in his present life, finds himself in a precarious, pitiable, devastating, alienated, decadent, and inauthentic condition, full of deficiencies and miseries. Consequently, something has to be done in order to free man from this litany of problems. This is because there exists in every man that tension to free himself from the slavery of ignorance, error, fear and passions. Therefore, the crux of the problem lies in the recovering of the self through the acquisition of a truer and more proper being by effectuating a fuller and more complete actualization of his own possibilities. The message is that man must as a matter of fact be surpassed and to fully realize himself, he must shatter the fetters of metaphysics, morals and religion, and in particular, he must eliminate the idea of God.
Purpose Of The Work
Nietzsche in a bid to free man from his depressed state brought to the consciousness of all the fact that man must abandon or eliminate the idea of God, religion and morality. An exhaustive effort is therefore made towards analyzing, exposing and evaluating this surpassing of oneself in a bid to realize oneself and we shall see also why it is egocentric.
Scope Of The Study
Going through many books especially philosophical Anthropology by B. Mondin, one will see immediately that many people made one contribution or the other on the issue of self-transcendence. Many still said many things with regard to the egocentric interpretation of self-transcendence in man. However, in this work much attention is paid to Nietzsche who as it has been said earlier is the greatest exponent and defender of this egocentric tendency in man. We equally considered the abstract and spiritual manifestation of self-transcendence in other events outside man. Besides, relevant materials could be sought from other philosophers and works of Nietzsche and any other material we consider necessary no matter the source.
Methodology
It involves expository and critical approach. Hence, the egocentric interpretation of self-transcendence in man will be diagnosed, exposed, carefully and systematically examined in the light of Nietzsche. This project also gives room for a well systematized and critical evaluation of Nietzsche’s mind on egocentricism in man.
…
