is incapable of it, because he has not yet come into his own full nature. Nietzsche declares that man's essential nature is not yet determined—it has neither been found nor been secured. This is why Nietzsche says: is the as yet undetermined animal." The statement sounds strange. Yet it only puts into words what Western thought has thought of man from the beginning. is the rational animal. Through reason, man raises himself above the animal, but so that he must constantly look down upon the animal, subject it, master it. If we call animal characteristics "sensual," and take reason as non-sensual or suprasensual, then man—the rational animal—appears as the sensual supra-sensual being. If we follow tradition and call the sensual "physical," then reason, the supra-sensual, is what goes beyond the sensual, the physical; in Greek, "beyond" is μετά; μετά τὰ φυσικά means beyond the physical, the sensual; the supra-sensual, in passing beyond the physical, is the metaphysical. conceived as the rational animal is the physical exceeding the physical; in short—in the nature of man as the rational animal, there is gathered the passing from the physical to the non-physical, the supraphysical: thus man himself is the metaphysical. But since for Nietzsche neither man's physical, sensual side—his body, nor man's non-sensual side—his reason, have been adequately conceived in their essential nature, man, in the prevailing definition, remains the as yet unconceived and so far undetermined animal. Modern anthropology, which exploits Nietzsche's writings as eagerly as does psychoanalysis, has completely misunderstood that statement, and totally failed to recognize its implications. is the as yet undetermined animal; the rational animal has not yet been brought into its full nature. In order to determine the nature of man so far, man as he has been must first of all be carried beyond himself. Man so far is the last man in that he is not able—and that means, not willing—to subject