Free Will#
Summary#
For Machiavelli, free will represents humanity’s capacity to direct roughly half of our affairs, while Fortune governs the rest; through preparation and adaptability, we can resist fate’s worst effects. Nietzsche takes a more critical stance, calling free will a “hundred-times-refuted theory” that persists only because its refutability attracts minds eager to disprove it. He extends this critique to theology, arguing that God’s supposed free will is refuted by his apparent inability to hear, help, or communicate clearly with humanity.