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Freedom of Will and Fate.
April 1862.
Excerpt from:
Nietzsche's Writings as a Student.
Translation Copyright 2012, The Nietzsche Channel.
Freedom of will, in
itself nothing else but freedom of thought, is also
limited in a similar way as is freedom of thought.1
Thought cannot exceed the range of the circle of ideas,
but the circle of ideas rests upon obtained intuitions
and ones that can with their expansion grow and intensify
without going beyond the limits determined by the design
of the brain. In the same way, freedom of will is also
capable of intensification up to the same extremity, but
unrestricted within these limits. It is a different thing
to put the will to work; the capacity for this is alloted
to us in a fatalistic manner.—
While fate appears to man in
the mirror of his own personality, individual freedom of
will and individual fate are two equal adversaries. We
find that the people believing in fate are distinguished
by force and strength of will,2
that, on the other hand, women and men who let things
happen according to perversely interpreted Christian
tenets—since "God will make everything right"—allow themselves to be
guided by circumstances in a degrading fashion. In
general, "submission to God's will" and
"humility" are often nothing but a cloak for
cowardly timidity to face destiny with decisiveness.
If, however, fate as a
defined limit still seems more powerful than free will,
then we should not [....]
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