Throughout human history, the desire for freedom and a knowledge of truth has represented one of the most fundamental pursuits of mankind. However, despite beliefs to the contrary, it is the stipulation of this essay that the whole of mankind has been successful in achieving neither of these endeavors. In his book, The Genealogy of Morals, Friedrich Nietzsche suggests that in order to achieve freedom, we must first sacrifice our misplaced belief in truth: "Nothing is true, everything is permitted". Here we have real freedom, for the notion of truth itself has been disposed of. In other words, actual truth does not exist, and it is only once one is able to recognize this that they can realize freedom from thereself. Contrastingly, I believe that only by first realizing our freedom may we be allowed to perceive the existence of truth. It is thus the intention of this essay to challenge Nietzsche's contention by demonstrating a means by which to achieve both freedom and truth within the framework of Nietzsche's own philosophy.
In order to achieve any understanding of actual truth, we must first achieve a number of foregoing conditions, to include the realization of our freedom, or free will. The presented argument will contend that Nietzsche fails to consider the other potential half of humanity, the other half being found in our potential to rise above other animals by realizing the potential of our reasoning. In order to attain this potential, we must first win a struggle against the domination of our reasoning by our animal instincts and even by reasoning turned against itself. This struggle, its constituents, and the means by which to overcome it are detailed within the first half of the essay. Having overcome this struggle, we may subsequently employ Nietzsche's o ...