Nietzsche on Free Will, Autonomy and the Sovereign Individual

Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 80 (1):321-357 (2006)
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Abstract

[Ken Gemes] In some texts Nietzsche vehemently denies the possibility of free will; in others he seems to positively countenance its existence. This paper distinguishes two different notions of free will. Agency free will is intrinsically tied to the question of agency, what constitutes an action as opposed to a mere doing. Deserts free will is intrinsically tied to the question of desert, of who does and does not merit punishment and reward. It is shown that we can render Nietzsche's prima facie conflicting assertions regarding free will compatible by interpreting him as rejecting deserts free will while accepting the possibility of agency free will. It is argued that Nietzsche's advances an original form of compatibilism which takes agency free will to be a rare achievement rather than a natural endowment. /// [Christopher Janaway] This paper aims to distinguish a conception of 'free will' that Nietzsche opposes and one that he supports. In Human, All Too Human Nietzsche propounds the 'total unfreedom' of the will. But by the time of Beyond Good and Evil and the Genealogy he is more concerned to trace the affective psychological states underlying beliefs in both free will and 'unfree will', to suggest that the will might become free in certain individuals, a matter of having a consistent strong character, self-knowledge, and ability to create values. The paper explores the kind of autonomy required in agents who would 'revalue' existing values.

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Author Profiles

Christopher Janaway
University of Southampton
Ken Gemes
Birkbeck College

Citations of this work

Nietzsche's Philosophical Psychology.Paul Katsafanas - 2013 - In John Richardson & Ken Gemes (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Nietzsche. Oxford University Press. pp. 727-755.
Nietzsche on the health of the soul.Andrew Huddleston - 2017 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 60 (1-2):135-164.
Freedom as a Philosophical Ideal: Nietzsche and His Antecedents.Donald Rutherford - 2011 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 54 (5):512 - 540.
Nietzsche on art and freedom.Aaron Ridley - 2007 - European Journal of Philosophy 15 (2):204–224.
Nietzsche on the Diachronic Will and the problem of morality.Alessandra Tanesini - 2012 - European Journal of Philosophy 20 (4):652-675.

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