 One popular idea (e.g., Schacht 1983, Richardson 1996) is that higher men exemplify “power,” which is claimed to be Nietzsche’s fundamental criterion of value. Such readings, alas, have to employ the concept of “power” rather elastically, since the conglomeration of traits of higher human beings noted above don’t seem to be, in any ordinary sense, instances of “power” or its manifestation. (Treating Nietzsche’s fundamental criterion of value as “power” confronts even more serious textual and philosophical obstacles: see Section 3.1, below.)