The aspiration of a woman would be to give birth to an Übermensch, for example her relationships with men would be judged by this standard. All human life would be given meaning by how it advanced a new generation of human beings. Zarathustra first announces the Übermensch as a goal humanity can set for itself. Through realizing this new set of values, the Übermensch is perfect because they have mastered all human obstacles. Whereas Nietzsche diagnosed the Christian value system as a reaction against life and hence destructive in a sense, the new values which the Übermensch will be responsible for will be life-affirming and creative (see Nietzschean affirmation). Instead, they must be motivated by a love of this world and of life.
In order to avoid a relapse into Platonic idealism or asceticism, the creation of these new values cannot be motivated by the same instincts that gave birth to those tables of values. Alternatively, in the absence of this creation, there are no grounds upon which to criticize nor justify any action, including the particular values created and the means by which they are promulgated. If the Übermensch acts to create new values within the moral vacuum of nihilism, there is nothing that this creative act would not justify. Zarathustra presents the Übermensch as the creator of new values to banish nihilism. With the sole source of values exhausted, the danger of nihilism looms. According to Nietzsche, the moral doctrine of Catholicism had become outdated. Nietzsche refers to this crucial paradigm shift as a reevaluation of values. "God is dead" means that the idea of God can no longer provide values. While the concept of God was the ultimate expression of other-worldly values and their underlying instincts, belief in God nevertheless did give meaning to life for a time. Zarathustra ties the Übermensch to the death of God. Death of God and the creation of new values Zarathustra further links the Übermensch to the body and to interpreting the soul as simply an aspect of the body. This led to the abnegation and mortification of the body, or asceticism. Zarathustra declares that the Christian escape from this world also required the invention of an immortal soul separate from the earthly body. The Übermensch grasps the earthly world with relish and gratitude. The turn away from the earth is prompted, he says, by a dissatisfaction with life that causes the sufferer to imagine another world which will fulfill his revenge. Nietzsche introduces the concept of the Übermensch in contrast to his understanding of the other-worldliness of Christianity: Zarathustra proclaims the will of the Übermensch to give meaning to life on earth, and admonishes his audience to ignore those who promise other-worldly fulfillment to draw them away from the earth. The adjective übermenschlich means super-human: beyond human strength or out of proportion to humanity. Mensch refers to a human being, not a male specifically as it is still sometimes erroneously believed. The German prefix über can have connotations of superiority, transcendence, excessiveness, or intensity, depending on the words to which it is attached.
Scholars continue to employ both terms, some simply opting to reproduce the German word. A translation like "superior humans" might better fit the concept of Nietzsche as he unfolds his narrative. Kaufmann and others preferred to translate Übermensch as "overman". Walter Kaufmann lambasted this translation in the 1950s for two reasons: first, the failure of the English prefix "super" to capture the nuance of the German über (though in Latin, its meaning of "above" or "beyond" is closer to the German) and second, for promoting misidentification of Nietzsche's concept with the comic-book character Superman. In 1909, Thomas Common translated it as "Superman", following the terminology of George Bernard Shaw's 1903 stage play Man and Superman. In 1896, Alexander Tille made the first English translation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, rendering Übermensch as "Beyond-Man".
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