Abstract

This article develops an interpretation of Nietzsche’s notion of the overman and its links to his conceptions of agency and free will. Nietzsche sees human actions as commitments and commitment as irreducibly temporal inasmuch as it requires both obedience to the past and responsibility for the future. In making any possibility his own, the agent commits himself to certain outcomes in the face of contingencies beyond his control. An overman is someone who has overcome his resistance to the temporal character of agency by taking responsibility for the choices he makes.