Conclusion: Philosophy and Freedom

Summary

The aim of this conclusion is to make explicit the consequences of the work already done by bringing together the insights on freedom developed in the interpretations of Hegel and Nietzsche. Section 1 briefly recapitulates their overlapping analyses of the freedom of willing and its limitations. We have seen that these analyses lead both Hegel and Nietzsche to the conclusion that philosophy must play a crucial role in our liberation, but we have also seen that they understand and practice philosophy very differently. Section 2 therefore reconsiders how Hegel and Nietzsche understand and practice philosophy, and how they understand their own philosophical practice to be liberating. Section 3 suggests that the different philosophical practices of Hegel and Nietzsche are complementary, such that in concert they could yield a more comprehensive freedom than either is able to deliver on its own. Section 4 concludes the book by offering some preliminary indications of the political significance of this most comprehensive philosophical liberation.

The Freedom of Willing and Its Limitations

Hegel and Nietzsche are united by their dissatisfaction with the usual ways of thinking about freedom. Each develops his own conception of freedom out of a critique of more conventional understandings, and each bases his critique on the idea that to be free one must be self-determining, one cannot be determined by something external to oneself.