Date of Award
1-20-2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Philosophy
First Advisor
Jacqueline Scott
Abstract
This study examines Nietzsche’s views on freedom to show how they inform a notion of human flourishing. I argue that while Nietzsche denies the existence of a metaphysical freedom in which the self is an unconditioned cause of events, he affirms an embodied freedom in which our consciousness can function as part of the causal explanation for action in virtue of its ability to alter the expression of bodily drives. However, I demonstrate that agential power in this sense can only function in conjunction with other causal factors that constitute constraints on freedom. As such, I argue that there is an ineliminable tension in Nietzschean agency. In short, while we can be in control of our actions in some sense, we are not in control in another. Despite this conclusion, I argue that this tension is generative in that Nietzsche holds that thinking of ourselves as both free and constrained contributes to the best kind of life. I show that the highest form of such constrained freedom involves a bodily health that persons can express if they engage in contests as the means of continually creating new values. In my view, engaging in such a practice allows persons to think of their causal activity as enduring what Nietzsche claims is the inevitable decay of values. As a result, I argue that he treats this way of being in the world as constitutive of the best life because it represents the highest expression of power. I argue that my interpretation of Nietzschean freedom provides three main advantages. First, it explains why Nietzsche describes honesty and contestation as necessary for freedom. Second, my view best explains the ambiguity in Nietzsche’s assessment of the ascetic priest. Finally, my reading resolves the apparently paradoxical features of the sovereign individual, Goethe, and Nietzsche himself.
Recommended Citation
Berthiaume, Nathan University, "Embodied Freedom: Nietzsche on Agency, Health, and Value" (2025). Dissertations. 4161.
https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/4161
