Nietzsche Workshop: Ridley

Aaron Ridley's paper, 'Nietzsche on Will and Action', argued that Nietzsche endorsed expressivism about the relation between will and action. On this view, one's will individuates one's actions but the converse is also true - what one does can individuate one's will. Will and action form a coherent unity. What is rejected, according to this view, is an empiricism that equates will with introspectible 'mental mechanism' and action with bodily movement. However, the view is consistent with naturalism conceived as the view that philosophical positions be consistent with the natural sciences.

Apart from the concern that perhaps the definition of naturalism was too permissive, a great deal of the discussion revolved around the idea that action can invididuate will in a fine-grained way. This idea seems implausibly strong, seemingly acting retroactively on a previously formed intention. There was also the concern that it left no room for one's failing to turn one's will into action. It was suggested that perhaps these criticisms were wrongly replacing Nietzsche's emphasis on will and the expression of character with the formation of intentions.