ABSTRACT
In attempting to understand the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche one is immediately faced with the task of resolving the prima facie inconsistencies in his views on freedom. The conception of freedom that Nietzsche rejects is founded upon a mistaken view of the self. According to this radically defective view, the self is an indivisible, eternal, monad or substratum that retains its identity through time. Although Nietzsche has many disparaging things to say about freedom in the substantialist sense, there can be no doubt that he believes that it is possible to become free; that freedom is a realizable ideal. Thus, the issue must consider is in what sense this is so. Nietzsche recognizes that the freedom left for the powerful individual who sets out on his own course without anything to base his decisions on except himself is a cagelike freedom.
