Friedrich Nietzsche and Free Will

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Friedrich Nietzsche and free will

The 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is known as a critic of Judeo-Christian morality and
religions in general. One of the arguments he raised against the truthfulness of these doctrines is that they
are based upon the concept of free will, which, in his opinion, does not exist.[1][2]
Schopenhauer
In The Gay Science, Nietzsche praises Arthur Schopenhauer's "immortal doctrines of the intellectuality of
intuition, the apriority of the law of causality, (...) and the non-freedom of the will,[3]" which have not
been assimilated enough by the disciples. Following is, then, the short description of those views of the
latter philosopher.[4]
The principle of causality

In Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason Schopenhauer claimed to prove – in accordance
with Kant and against Hume – that causality is present in the perceivable reality as its principle, i.e. it
precedes and enables human perception (so called apriority of the principle of causality), and thus it is not
just an observation of something likely, statistically frequent, which however does not happen "on
principle" (empiricism of the principle of causality). More on this dispute in philosophy can be found in
the article on free will.
Physical freedom
In his treatise On the Freedom of the Will, Schopenhauer calls the fact that we can do whatever we will a
physical freedom, i.e. lack of physically present obstacles, which is not identical with moral freedom.[5]
Physically "free" means: one acting according only to one's will; if attempts are made to use this term to
the will itself, the question arises: "is will itself willed?," "do you will the will to become so-and-so?". It
is therefore a specific aspect of the claim of freedom, in which it is stressed whether the course of
consciousness follows indeed in a willed way. The problem of willing the will appears in Thus spake
Zarathustra, for instance in the chapter "Backworldsmen."[6]
Necessity vs. contingency

In On the Freedom of the Will, Schopenhauer demonstrates the (well known in philosophy) distinction
between necessity and contingency.[5] He calls "necessary" what follows from a given sufficient basis[7]
(i.e. that what is already certain – if one knows that the sufficient cause is present). On the other hand, one
calls "contingent"[8] or "incidental" (with regard to a sufficient basis) that what does not follow from the
latter (so e.g. two unconnected events can be contingent to each other: like when a black cat crosses the
street and one's job is lost on the same day). As moral freedom means lack of necessity, it would mean a
lack of any basis: it "would have to be defined as absolutely contingent",[5] i.e. an absolute fortuity, or
chance.[9]
The question about the freedom of will is thus the question whether something depends on another thing
(a state, an event), i.e. is in some way determined by it, or does not depend on anything (then we call it a
chance). Or, in other words, whether something can be predicted: whether it is certain (given the presence
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or absence of the sufficient cause) or not. Cf. Luther's argument: for him everything is a necessity because
the Creator knows it already.
Nietzsche's analysis
Power of will
In Beyond Good and Evil Nietzsche criticizes the concept of free will both negatively and positively.[10]
He calls it a folly resulting from extravagant pride of man; and calls the idea a crass stupidity. The latter
probably relates to ordinary-man's visions about a god who (after the elapse of eternal waiting) creates the
world and then waits and observes (being, however, still "beyond time"): and then he is surprised and
subdued by what one does.[11] (This vision is brought up by Nietzsche in The Antichrist.)[12]
Next, he argues that free will generally represents an error of causa sui:
The desire for "freedom of will" in the superlative, metaphysical sense, such as still holds
sway, unfortunately, in the minds of the half-educated, the desire to bear the entire and
ultimate responsibility for one's actions oneself, and to absolve God, the world, ancestors,
chance, and society therefrom, involves nothing less than to be precisely this causa sui, and,
with more than Munchausen daring, to pull oneself up into existence by the hair, out of the
slough of nothingness.[10]
Finally, he suggests that the only real thing about will is whether it is strong (i.e. hard to break) or weak:
The "non-free will" is mythology; in real life it is only a question of strong and weak will.[10]
Nothing is (or can be) fully resistant to stimula, for that would mean it is immutable: whereas nothing in
this world is or can be immutable.[13] He therefore continues here the Schopenhauer's issue of physical
freedom: "whether you will, what you willed to will".[14]
Will is generally considered a mental power. "Freedom" of will could then be interpreted as: power of will
(cf. the appropriate passus from The Antichrist, where Nietzsche generally opposes will-based
psychology[15]). Will has power over actions, over many things; therefore, things are determined by will.
But is this power unlimited? Does will rule without itself being ruled? (And further: does a Christian want
to sin?) – Nietzsche disagrees. A godless man becomes pious out of "grace", he did not want it; and
likewise a pious man becomes godless with no merit or guilt. Nietzsche suggests in many places that if a
pious man loses faith, it is because of the power of his values over him, of the will for truthfulness...
"Me", will, and chance

Will is something that determines human acts, thoughts etc. It is will that makes man reluctant to toss a
coin for something (cf. The Antichrist about Christians: "in point of fact, they simply do what they cannot
help doing"[16]). The problem is, whether it is itself ruled? And here two terms which complicate the
picture appear: the term "me" and "chance" (i.e. something independent from anything, beyond control).
The term "me" (as in the statements "it's up to me", "it is you who willed that") had already been
recognized as empty in the preface of Beyond Good and Evil[17] (or as connected with the superstition
about the soul). Later Nietzsche stated more clearly that it was a tautology ("what will I do? what will my
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decision be?" – "it's up to you" – that actually means: your decision depends on your decision, something
happens in your mind and not somewhere else...). See e.g. On the Genealogy of Morals:[18]
For, in just the same way as people separate lightning from its flash and take the latter as an
action, as the effect of a subject which is called lightning, so popular morality separates
strength from the manifestations of strength, as if behind the strong person there were an
indifferent substrate, which is free to express strength or not. But there is no such substrate;
there is no "being" behind the doing, acting, becoming. "The doer" is merely made up and
added into the action – the act is everything. People basically duplicate the action: when they
see a lightning flash, that is an action of an action: they set up the same event first as the
cause and then yet again as its effect. (...) "We weak people are merely weak. It's good if we
do nothing; we are not strong enough for that" – but this bitter state, this shrewdness of the
lowest ranks, which even insects possess (when in great danger they stand as if they were
dead in order not to do "too much"), has, thanks to that counterfeiting and self-deception of
powerlessness, dressed itself in the splendour of a self-denying, still, patient virtue, just as if
the weakness of the weak man himself – that means his essence, his actions, his entire single,
inevitable, and irredeemable reality – is a voluntary achievement, something willed, chosen,
an act, something of merit.
The same however can be applied to the moral weakness of a Christian (his lack of resistance), who
would certainly prefer not to sin and would construct himself otherwise if he could. "And many a one can
command himself, but still sorely lacketh self-obedience!"[19] – Nietzsche criticizes the idea of "free
choice", and even of "choice" in general (cf. the end of above quotation): man does not want to "choose",
man wants to affirm himself ("will to power").[20]
Another problem is the role of chance. Unless the change brought to man is too big, a chance is generally
responded by will, wherever there is will. He calls it "the redemption (of chance)". This topic dawns as
early as in Human, All Too Human,[21] and it returns in many places of Zarathustra. For instance in part 3
it is discussed as follows:
I am Zarathustra the godless! I cook every chance in my pot. And only

when it hath been quite cooked do I welcome it as my food.
And verily, many a chance came imperiously unto me: but still more
imperiously did my Will speak unto it (...)[22]
Earlier in this part:
The time is now past when accidents [Zufälle] could befall me; and what
could not fall to my lot which would not already be mine own!" [23]
To cut it short, if it was always that "we choose a chance", then there would be determinism (for "we", "we
ourselves" means: our will and its filtering and determining capabilities). And since it happens otherwise
("a chance chooses us"), then there is indeterminism. But the latter case means we have no will in a topic,
i.e. it is at that time morally indifferent to us, adiaphora, not opposed to anything (and therefore even
more there is no guilt).
Necessity in man. What is "unfree will"?

Since free will is discussed, it must obviously be some restricted reality (if "freedom" meant "everything,"
there would be no need for a separate word). What follows? That there must be events external to one's
freedom: therefore, besides "free will" there should also consequently be "unfree will." Although
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Nietzsche considers both terms entirely fictional, he gives some clues about the psychological reality
behind them:
When man experiences the conditions of power, the imputation is that he is not their cause,
that he is not responsible for them — they come without being willed, consequently we are
not their author: the will that is not free (i.e., the consciousness that we have been changed
without having willed it) needs an external will.[24]
In short, an unexpected change. Now, going back to the mentioned definition, chance means: that what
cannot be predicted. If randomness affects a man (unsubjugated, reaching even the surface of his
consciousness), then "unfree will" occurs. Thus, whenever we call something free, we feel something free,
in short: wherever we feel our power, it is deterministic, it is a necessity. And indeed Nietzsche says it
with the mouth of Zarathustra:
Out into distant futures, which no dream hath yet seen, into warmer
souths than ever sculptor conceived, — where gods in their dancing are
ashamed of all clothes: (...)
Where all time seemed to me a blessed mockery of moments, where
necessity was freedom itself, which played happily with the goad of
freedom: —[25]
The same in Beyond Good and Evil:
Artists have here perhaps a finer intuition; they who know only too well that precisely when
they no longer do anything "arbitrarily," and everything of necessity, their feeling of freedom,
of subtlety, of power, of creatively fixing, disposing, and shaping, reaches its climax — in
short, that necessity and "freedom of will" are then the same thing with them.[26]
The universe indeterministic?

Yet in another part of Zarathustra Nietzsche claims that when we look long-term enough and from the
bird's-eye perspective of supreme powers big enough, a chance is unimportant, because it is subject to and
step-by-step softened and arranged by natural laws and necessities which constitute the order of the world
and evolution:
If ever a breath hath come to me of the creative breath, and of the heavenly necessity which
compelleth even chances to dance star-dances: (...)[27]
To Nietzsche everything in this world is an expression of will to power.[28][29] To exist is to represent will
to power, to cause influence (compare similar views of Protagoras' disciples in Plato's Theaetetus). One
can cause influence only on something that exists. Therefore, (through induction) an act changes
everything from that moment onwards. If one thing was otherwise, everything would have to be otherwise
(and generally also backwards).[30] Contrary to Chesterton's views, this general rule is not precluded even
by absolute chances: they of course change the course of the world too, but still: if one thing was set
otherwise, everything would have to be otherwise.[30]
Several scholars have argued that Nietzsche was not a determinist in his views of the universe.[31][32] In
Zarathustra, absolute randomness (maybe not as the essence of reality, but as a part thereof) can be
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thought of, yes, perhaps it even exists:
Verily, it is a blessing and not a blasphemy when I teach that "above all things there standeth
the heaven of chance, the heaven of innocence, the heaven of hazard, the heaven of
wantonness.[33]
Issues of responsibility and morality

Because causa sui is according to Nietzsche a nonsense, even to a chance could get a basis attributed
(only "the whole" has no basis), and it would be "divine dice" (or "Divine Plan"):
If ever I have played dice with the gods at the divine table of the earth, so
that the earth quaked and ruptured, and snorted forth fire-streams: –
– For a divine table is the earth, and trembling with new active dictums
and dice-casts of the gods: (...)[27]
To Nietzsche no one is responsible either for the necessities (laws and powers) he represents, or for
chances he encounters (which conquer him unwillingly – and which, as things totally independent from
anything, only the "supreme being" could change); after all, no one is absolutely and completely resistant,
there can always happen something which changes one deeply enough.
From The Dawn of Day:
To tranquillise the sceptic. – "I don't know at all what I am doing. I don't know in the least
what I ought to do!" You are right, but be sure of this: you are being done at every moment!
Mankind has at all times mistaken the active for the passive: it is its eternal grammatical
blunder.[34]
In Twilight of the Idols Nietzsche discusses fatalism and responsibility in these words:
What alone can our teaching be? – That no one gives a man his qualities, neither God, nor
society, nor his parents and ancestors, nor he himself (the latter absurd idea here put aside has
been taught as "intelligible freedom" by Kant, perhaps also by Plato). No one is responsible
for existing at all, for being formed so and so, for being placed under those circumstances and
in this environment. His own destiny cannot be disentangled from the destiny of all else in
past and future. He is not the result of a special purpose, a will, or an aim, the attempt is not
here made to reach an "ideal of man," an "ideal of happiness," or an "ideal of morality;" – it
is absurd to try to shunt off man's nature towards some goal. We have invented the notion of a
"goal:" in reality a goal is lacking . . . We are necessary, we are part of destiny, we belong to
the whole, we exist in the whole, – there is nothing which could judge, measure, compare, or
condemn our being, for that would be to judge, measure, compare, and condemn the whole . .
. But there is nothing outside the whole! – This only is the grand emancipation: that no one
be made responsible any longer, that the mode of being be not traced back to a causa prima,
that the world be not regarded as a unity, either as sensorium or as "spirit;" – it is only
thereby that the innocence of becoming is again restored . . . The concept of "God" has
hitherto been the greatest objection to existence . . . We deny God, we deny responsibility by
denying God: it is only thereby that we save the world. –[35]
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Free will as a psychological error

Nietzsche's critique of free will has essentially two aspects: one is philosophical (fatalistic), and the other
is psychological.[36] Fatalism lets Nietzsche theoretically prove the error of moral doctrines, which – most
generally speaking – would require that a sinner changed his destiny (for instance by changing the laws of
nature, influencing chances which lie completely beyond the extent of his influence), which is by
definition impossible. But such theory would not be convincing enough if at the same time the impression
of control was not removed, as well as the ever renewed attempts at associating it with the "freedom of
will" and building a philosophy out of that. Thus a psychological critique is needed.
If one agrees that the "freedom of will" denotes the power of will which rules but is not itself ruled, then
it would at bottom be enough to prove that it is not will what governs human behaviour in order to abolish
the very term, to prove that "it is not there". And Nietzsche went on to this.[37] For Nietzsche the term
"will" is psychologically strictly connected with the term "aim" (he often combines the two), maybe even
they are identical to him.[38] Aim could then be interpreted, according to a common definition, as
planning and intellectual foreseeing[39] (of especially effects); according to Nietzsche first and foremost
the anticipation of acts which in fact do not need to follow by its virtue from aiming (which is here
foreseeing).
In Twilight of the Idols Nietzsche demonstrates the error of false causality just before the error of free
will:
Of these "inward facts" that seem to demonstrate causality, the primary and most persuasive
one is that of the will as cause. The idea of consciousness ("spirit") or, later, that of the ego
[I] (the "subject") as a cause are only afterbirths: first the causality of the will was firmly
accepted as proved, as a fact, and these other concepts followed from it. But we have
reservations about these concepts. Today we no longer believe any of this is true. (...) The so-
called motives: another error. Merely a surface phenomenon of consciousness, something
shadowing[40] the deed that is more likely to hide the causes of our actions than to reveal
them. (...)[41]
and then, in the section directly regarding free will, he observes:
Men were considered "free" only so that they might be considered guilty – could be judged
and punished: consequently, every act had to be considered as willed, and the origin of every
act had to be considered as lying within the consciousness (and thus the most fundamental
psychological deception was made the principle of psychology itself).[42]
Similarly in The Antichrist: "the will no longer «acts,» or «moves»...", "the term no longer denotes any
power".[43] This non-deriving of acts straight way out of aims, which are just foreseeing (the
accompanying self-consciousness of that what is to come), but searching for their sources elsewhere (for
example in reflexes, habits, urges) is to Nietzsche even one of major differences between medieval
(Thomist) and modern psychology.[38]
Nietzsche's words turned out to be prophetic,[36] for modern neuroscience, especially the famous
Libet's[44][45] (or Kornhuber's[46]) experiment and other of this type, has not once confirmed that the
decision for an act is made beyond the (self)consciousness (in popular words, the will), which comes up to
even half a second later.
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About man and freedom

In The Antichrist Nietzsche argues that man should be considered no otherwise than as a machine.[15]
Even if some generic chaos (randomness) is added to the picture, it does not affect this. A chance is
innocent.[47] He points out the weakness of human as well as of God. Man wills the good, "God" wills the
good, and yet evil happens.[48] So where is this "freedom" (i.e. power) of will? And where is this good
God?[49]
About good and evil

These two human valuations refer to things essentially mixed with each other and interdependent. Good
causes the evil, and evil causes the good.[50] The dichotomy between a good God and an evil satan is a
"dualistic fiction."[51]
In Twilight of the Idols (see the quote above) and later in The Antichrist[52] all concepts which explain life
as a test or raise an (externally reasonable) moral "task," "purpose" or the "will of God" are considered
false. They are a part of the "error of free will"[35] consisting in incomprehension of fatalism of life, i.e.
the fact that it is shaped by higher forces.
About organized religion

Religion is a form of controlling people:[53] one man-machine wants to achieve power over another. Even
the term "freedom," very often used by theologians, in its positive sense actually means "power."[5]
Religion is by no means more "fulfilling the will of God" than anything else. As God is primary and
almighty, his will is by definition always fulfilled (it is impossible that he wills something and it is not
fulfilled).
A priest, a moralist does in fact nothing for man's "salvation," but just rules, and even when doing so he
acts in a way that would (apart from that) be considered immoral.[54]
Nietzsche goes on to analysing the Bible philologically and to guesses about the person of Jesus. He
claims that it was not the aim of the latter to have anybody serve him, for God rules everything anyway; to
the contrary, in Nietzsche's opinion Jesus fought with churchedness and the notion of sin rooted in the Old
Testament. And thus in The Antichrist Christianity was portrayed as the corruption of the original
doctrine taught by Jesus about equal rights of all to be children of God, the doctrine of no guilt and of no
gulf between God and man.
The very "freedom of will" was invented by the priests in order to master the process of human thinking –
and nothing more.[35] And in order to master it, they had first to denaturize it.[52]
About death of God and nihilism

The downfall of Christian values is not an effect – as it has been presented hitherto – of human free will.
The supreme values (especially formerly common in European culture) overthrow each other
themselves[55] due to inner contradictions[56] and non-matching the nature.
All great things destroy themselves by an act of self-cancellation. That's what the law of life
wills, that law of the necessary "self-overcoming" in the essence of life – eventually the call
always goes out to the lawmaker himself, "patere legem, quam ipse tulisti" [submit to the law
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which you yourself have established]. That's the way Christianity was destroyed as dogma by
its own morality; that's the way Christendom as morality must now also be destroyed. We
stand on the threshold of this event.[55]
Final views
In The Will to Power, posthumously assembled from his final notebooks of 1888 and 1889, Nietzsche
heavily criticises "determinism and teleology", writing: "If a quantity of force determines and conducts
itself in a certain way in every particular case, it does not prove that it has 'no free will'". Later in the work
he can be found divorcing himself from both sides of the usual debate on free will:
Free will or no free will?—There is no such thing as "Will": that is only a simplified
conception on the part of the understanding, like "matter."
— The Will to Power, Book II ("The principles of a new valuation"), II. The Will to
Power in Nature, 1. The Will to Power as Life, §671. Vintage Books edition, September,
1968, tr. W. Kaufmann & R.J. Hollingdale.
See also
▪ Jacques the Fatalist
▪ Problem of evil
▪ Force majeure
▪ Free will
▪ On the Freedom of the Will
▪ Chance and Necessity
References
1. B. Leiter, Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Nietzsche on Morality, Routledge
2002, p. 68-69: "He also shares with the Materialists a blanket repudiation of the
idea of free will." Online text here (https://books.google.com/books?id=ZbeGAgA
AQBAJ&pg=PA68)
2. Cf. e.g. The Antichrist (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19322/19322-h/19322-h.ht
m#THE_ANTICHRIST), 26, tr. H. L. Mencken.
3. The Gay Science (https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/n/nietzsche/friedrich/n67j/book
2.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20150530224155/https://ebooks.a
delaide.edu.au/n/nietzsche/friedrich/n67j/book2.html) 2015-05-30 at the
Wayback Machine, 99, tr. T. Common.
4. Cf. B. Leiter, Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Nietzsche on Morality,
Routledge 2002, p. 59: "Schopenhauer's picture is, in fact, richer than this, and
important for understanding Nietzsche." Online text here (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=ZbeGAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA59)
5. Schopenhauer, On the Freedom of the Will, 1839, c. 1 (explanation of terms),
"What is meant by freedom?". First chapter online (http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/sa
mples/cam032/98022360.pdf)
6. Thus spake Zarathustra (https://archive.org/stream/thusspakezarathu01998gut/s
pzar10.txt), "The backworldsmen", tr. T. Common.
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7. Such sufficient basis can then be transcribed as the presence of all the
necessary conditions of the occurrence of an effect. As long as it is possible to
point out some necessary conditions of an event or state, so long there also
exists a sufficient basis, which in case of its occurrence will work with necessity;
it is dictated by logic. Cf. there, c. 4 ("Precursors"), a quote from Hobbes. This
does not preclude the inclusion of an accurate realization of a certain random
variable in a sufficient basis.
8. Zufällig is the German adjective combining all the meanings of chance,
randomness, fortuity, and contingency; the same situation in several other
European languages. Perhaps fortuitous or random to something could better
suit the intuitive meaning, and such translation of this scholastic term is
sometimes used. The term is sometimes used in a misleading way so that it
denotes in general all "instances [products] of a rule" (which are indeed
contingent to each other), and then lack of necessity is triumphantly announced
(like in the case of St. Thomas Aquinas), whereas one in fact agrees that there
are still causes (so another connection-by-necessity must exist); this is the so-
called relative fortuity of events. For Schopenhauer it is the starting point for
discussion about absolute fortuity and lack of causes.
9. The above-mentioned classification of phenomena in Schopenhauer's works is
not really a methodology or a kind of optics, but simply a notice that either an
event or a state is determined (by another, by anything) or it is not (by another,
by anything; like in case of a choice when all its directing forces – will, values, all
emotional aspects – are rejected or unworking). Thus philosophers even before
Schopenhauer have already thought that everything is either necessary or
fortuitous and as much as one does not apply, the other does; so for instance in
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, where the distinction is one of categories of
reason.
10. Beyond Good and Evil (https://archive.org/stream/beyondgoodandevi00nietuoft/
beyondgoodandevi00nietuoft_djvu.txt), 21, tr. H. Zimmern
11. Why then it does not surprise man? Cf. the so-called paradox of omniscience,
according to which there is a contradiction between visions of a live and free
God and omniscience or even the possibility of omniscience.
12. The Antichrist (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19322/19322-h/19322-h.htm#THE
_ANTICHRIST), 48, tr. H. L. Mencken.
13. Twilight of the Idols (http://www.handprint.com/SC/NIE/GotDamer.html), c. 3,
sect. 2, tr. W. Kaufmann & R.J. Hollingdale.
14. The composition actually already known to Hegel, in Elements of the Philosophy
of Right, 27, written in 1821. In Schopenhauer's essay an infinite regression
arises upon considering this issue, when one assumes the fixed answer Yes to
the question about freedom; so a logical fallacy occurs. This already can suggest
that there is a problem with searching for cause of everything one does in
consciousness.
15. The Antichrist The Antichrist (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19322/19322-h/193
22-h.htm#THE_ANTICHRIST), 14, tr. H. L. Mencken.
16. The Antichrist The Antichrist (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19322/19322-h/193
22-h.htm#THE_ANTICHRIST), 44, tr. H. L. Mencken.
beyondgoodandevi00nietuoft_djvu.txt), Preface, tr. H. Zimmern.
18. On the Genealogy of Morals (http://home.sandiego.edu/~janderso/360/genealog
y1.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20141008192122/http://home.sa
ndiego.edu/~janderso/360/genealogy1.htm) 2014-10-08 at the Wayback
Machine, treatise I, 13, tr. W. Kaufmann.
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19. Thus spake Zarathustra (https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/n/nietzsche/friedrich/n6

7a/part1.html#chapter3) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2014090422511
8/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/n/nietzsche/friedrich/n67a/part1.html#chapter
3) 2014-09-04 at the Wayback Machine, tr. T. Common, "Old and new tables", 4.
20. Francesco Belfiore, The Triadic Structure of the Mind: Outlines of a Philosophical
System (2nd edition), Univ. Press of America, 2014, p. 380: "My comment is that
Nietzsche, as I point out elsewhere (...), conceived the will to power as the
expression of the outward/selfish desire of the agent to affirm and impose on
others his apirations, interests and preferences, regardless to any inward/moral
thought and feeling." See also on p. 472: "Again with regard to the «will to
power», he held that «A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength –
life itself is will to power; self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most
frequent results»."
21. Human, All Too Human, 173, under the topic: Corriger la fortune (to correct a
chance), tr. R.J. Hollingdale.
pzar10.txt), "The Bedwarfing Virtue", 3, tr. T. Common.
23. Ibid., "The Wanderer".
24. The Will to Power, Book II ("Critique of highest values hitherto"), I. Critique of
religion, 1. Genesis of Religions, §135, where he demonstrates the notion of
"unfree will" as crucial to the emergence of many religious explanations. Vintage
Books edition, September, 1968, tr. W. Kaufmann & R.J. Hollingdale. Online
version here (https://books.google.com/books?id=Magi-iz7kIQC&dq=%22136+%
28March-June+1888%29%22&pg=PA86)
pzar10.txt), "Old and new tables", 2, tr. T. Common.
beyondgoodandevi00nietuoft_djvu.txt), 213, tr. H. Zimmern.
pzar10.txt), "The Seven Seals", 3, tr. T. Common.
28. K. Gemes, J. Richardson, The Oxford Handbook of Nietzsche, Oxford Univ. Press,
2013, p. 177-178 ("The Duality of Nietzsche's Theory of the Will to Power: The
Psychological and Cosmological Aspects"). Read online here (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=yZmJAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA177)
29. Cf. Beyond Good and Evil (https://archive.org/stream/beyondgoodandevi00nietuo
ft/beyondgoodandevi00nietuoft_djvu.txt), 36, tr. H. Zimmern.
30. This belief, perhaps not 100% deterministic, is explicitly expressed in Twilight of
the Idols, "Morality as Anti-Nature", 6, tr. W. Kaufmann & R.J. Hollingdale: "To say
to him, «Change yourself!» is to demand that everything be changed, even
retroactively."
31. Robert C. Solomon, The Journal of Nietzsche Studies 23 (2002), p. 64 ("Nietzsche
on Freedom and Fatalism"). Online text here (https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0
&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_nietzsche_studies/v023/23.1solomon.
html)
32. B. Leiter, Nietzsche on morality (2nd edition), Routledge 2015, p. 66. Online text
here (https://books.google.com/books?id=hBDEBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA66)
33. Thus spake Zarathustra (https://archive.org/stream/beyondgoodandevi00nietuof
t/beyondgoodandevi00nietuoft_djvu.txt), "Before sunrise", tr. T. Common.
34. The Dawn of Day (https://archive.org/stream/dawnofday029675mbp/dawnofday0
29675mbp_djvu.txt), 120, tr. J. M. Kennedy.
10 of 12 19/10/2023, 19:04
35. Twilight of the Idols (http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/The_Case_of

_Wagner_v11_1000198930/165) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2016030
3214453/http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/The_Case_of_Wagner_v
11_1000198930/165) 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, "The Four Great
Errors", 8, tr. T. Common.
36. B. Leiter, Nietzsche's Theory of the Will, p. 1. Philosophers' Imprint v. 7, no. 7,
September 2007. Online text here (http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/p/pod/dod-idx/ni
etzsche-s-theory-of-the-will.pdf?c=phimp;idno=3521354.0007.007)
37. Ibid. (Leiter), p. 12 ("The Real Genesis of Action").
38. Cf. The Will to Power, Book II ("Critique of highest values hitherto"), I. Critique of
philosophy, 238: on "psychology which ... searched for will (i.e. aim) behind
every act."
39. The intellect in philosophy was by the way usually presented as working causally
and, in principle, learning in course of life to associate the appropriate causes
and effects. It was thus understood e.g. by Schopenhauer (cf. F. C. White, On
Schopenhauer's Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, c. 4:
"Perception," p. 42: Brill Academic Pub, 1991; read online (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=95X3LSZ9O04C&pg=PA42)). The more thus the phenomena of will
and aim would have a deterministic foundation.
40. "Accompanying" in original.
41. Twilight of the Idols (http://www.handprint.com/SC/NIE/GotDamer.html), "The
Four Great Errors", 3, tr. W. Kaufmann & R.J. Hollingdale.
42. There, sect. 7.
_ANTICHRIST), 14, tr. H. L. Mencken. The latter is a mistranslation by Mencken (in
original: kein Vermögen mehr verstanden werden darf).
44. Libet, B.; Gleason, C. A.; Wright, E. W.; Pearl, D. K. (1983). "Time of conscious
intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential). The
unconscious initiation of a freely voluntary act". Brain. 106 (3): 623–642.
doi:10.1093/brain/106.3.623 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fbrain%2F106.3.623).
PMID 6640273 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6640273).
45. Libet, B. (1985). "Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in
voluntary action". Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 8 (4): 529–566.
doi:10.1017/S0140525X00044903 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS0140525X00044
903). S2CID 6965339 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:6965339).
46. Deecke, L.; Kornhuber, H.H. (2003). Human freedom, reasoned will, and the
brain. The Bereitschaftspotential story. In: M Jahanshahi, M Hallett (Eds.) The
Bereitschaftspotential, movement-related cortical potentials. Kluwer Academic /
Plenum Publishers ISBN 0-306-47407-7 pp. 283–320. The authors affirmed a kind
of naturalistic, compatibilistic free will.
_ANTICHRIST), 25, tr. H. L. Mencken "Chance robbed of its innocence;
unhappiness polluted with the idea of "sin"; well-being represented as a danger,
as a "temptation"; a physiological disorder produced by the canker worm of
conscience....".
11 of 12 19/10/2023, 19:04
48. The Gay Science (https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/n/nietzsche/friedrich/n67j/book

5.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20150909124836/https://ebooks.a
delaide.edu.au/n/nietzsche/friedrich/n67j/book5.html) 2015-09-09 at the
Wayback Machine, 346, tr. T. Common. "We have become saturated with the
conviction (and have grown cold and hard in it) that things are not at all divinely
ordered in this world, nor even according to human standards do they go on
rationally, mercifully, or justly: we know the fact that the world in which we live
is ungodly, immoral, and «inhuman», (...)".
49. In Ecce Homo, "Why I am so wise", 3, tr. Duncan Large he repeated after
Stendhal: "God's only excuse is that he doesn't exist." Due to the lack of free will
the theodicee (defence of divine goodness) based on indeterminism becomes
void.
50. Cf. e.g. "The Aftersong (http://www.thenietzschechannel.com/works-pub/bge/bge
fhm.htm)" in Beyond Good and Evil or "The Seven Seals (https://archive.org/stre
am/thusspakezarathu01998gut/spzar10.txt)", 4 in Zarathustra.
_ANTICHRIST), 17, tr. H. L. Mencken.
_ANTICHRIST), 26 & 38 about the moral order of the world.
_ANTICHRIST), 38. "We know, our conscience now knows – just what the real
value of all those sinister inventions of priest and church has been and what
ends they have served, with their debasement of humanity to a state of self-
pollution, the very sight of which excites loathing, – the concepts «the other
world,» «the last judgment,» «the immortality of the soul,» the «soul» itself: they
are all merely so many instruments of torture, systems of cruelty, whereby the
priest becomes master and remains master..."
54. Twilight of the Idols (http://www.handprint.com/SC/NIE/GotDamer.html), "The
«Improvers» of Mankind", tr. W. Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale.
55. On the Genealogy of Details (http://home.sandiego.edu/~janderso/360/genealog
y3.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20141010153350/http://home.sa
ndiego.edu/~janderso/360/genealogy3.htm) 2014-10-10 at the Wayback
Machine, treatise III, 27, tr. W. Kaufmann.
56. For instance, Nietzsche often quotes, as children of Christianity, honest research
(as willing the truth), as well as democratism (as derived from the belief in
equality of souls before God, that is: the moral law, and unbelief in a "higher
man", so essentially from pacifistic and equalistic tendencies), freedom of press
(or speech in general) and so on.
External links
▪ On the Freedom of The Will (http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam032/980223
60.pdf) – first chapter of Schopenhauer's essay
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Friedrich Nietzsche and Free Will - Wikipedia

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The principle of causality

Necessity vs. contingency

"Me", will, and chance

I am Zarathustra the godless! I cook every chance in my pot. And only

Earlier in this part:

Necessity in man. What is "unfree will"?

The same in Beyond Good and Evil:

The universe indeterministic?

thought of, yes, perhaps it even exists:

Issues of responsibility and morality

From The Dawn of Day:

Free will as a psychological error

and then, in the section directly regarding free will, he observes:

About man and freedom

About good and evil

About organized religion

About death of God and nihilism

19. Thus spake Zarathustra (https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/n/nietzsche/friedrich/n6

35. Twilight of the Idols (http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/The_Case_of

48. The Gay Science (https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/n/nietzsche/friedrich/n67j/book

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Friedrich_Nietzsche_and_free_will&

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