# Chapter 21 explained — Beyond Good and Evil > Chapter companion for Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche. ## What happens Nietzsche launches a radical critique of the concepts of 'free will' and 'non-free will' (determinism), arguing both are mythological errors. He rejects the 'causa sui' (self-caused cause) as a logical absurdity born of human pride. He warns against materializing cause and effect, stating they are only useful fictions for communication, not explanations of reality. The chapter concludes by diagnosing the personal, psychological motives behind adherence to either belief: vanity drives the belief in free will, while self-contempt drives the fatalism of 'non-free will'. ## Themes in this chapter ### Critique of Traditional Philosophy Direct attack on the fundamental philosophical concepts of cause, effect, necessity, and free will as mythological constructs, not descriptions of reality. ### Psychology as the Fundamental Science Analyzes the belief in free will or determinism as symptoms of personal psychological lack—vanity or self-contempt—betraying the thinker's inner state. ## Character check-ins ### The Narrator Directly argues against metaphysical free will and deterministic 'non-free will,' diagnosing the psychological motives of their adherents. ### Immanuel Kant Implicitly referenced via the critique of metaphysical categories (cause, effect, necessity) and the 'half-educated' holding onto a metaphysical sense of free will. ### Arthur Schopenhauer Referenced indirectly through the problem of 'non-free will' and psychological necessity, which he championed, now critiqued as another mythology. ## Key lines > The causa sui is the best self-contradiction that has yet been conceived... the extravagant pride of man has managed to entangle itself profoundly and frightfully with this very folly. The idea of being 'self-caused' is a logical absurdity, but human arrogance is deeply committed to it. _Rejects the metaphysical foundation of free will._ > One should use 'cause' and 'effect' only as pure conceptions, that is to say, as conventional fictions for the purpose of designation and mutual understanding—not for explanation. Cause and effect are not real forces in the world but merely useful labels we invent to communicate. _Advocates a perspectivist, non-mechanical view of causality._ > In 'being-in-itself' there is nothing of 'causal-connection,' of 'necessity,' or of 'psychological non-freedom'... Reality itself contains no causal chains, necessity, or lack of freedom; these are interpretations we project onto it. _Denies deterministic structure to ultimate reality._ > It is almost always a symptom of what is lacking in himself, when a thinker... manifests something of compulsion, indigence, obsequiousness, oppression, and non-freedom... A philosopher's belief in determinism often reveals his own feelings of weakness and lack of freedom. _Psychological diagnosis of deterministic thinkers._ > some will not give up their 'responsibility,' their belief in themselves, the personal right to their merits, at any price (the vain races belong to this class)... Vain people cling to free will to claim credit for themselves. _Psychological diagnosis of free-will believers._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters/21 - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters