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Single Idea 22131
[filed under theme 16. Persons / F. Free Will / 2. Sources of Free Will
]
Full Idea
Scotus said the will is a power for opposites, in the sense that even when actually willing one thing, it retains a real, active power to will the opposite. He detaches the idea of freedom from time and variability.
Gist of Idea
The will retains its power for opposites, even when it is acting
Source
report of John Duns Scotus (works [1301]) by Stephen D. Dumont - Duns Scotus p.206
Book Ref
'Shorter Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Craig,Edward [Routledge 2005], p.206
A Reaction
In the sense that we can abandon an action when in the middle of it, this seems to be correct. Not just 'I could have done otherwise', but 'I don't have to be doing this'. This shows that the will has wide power, but not that it is 'free'.
The
20 ideas
with the same theme
[what makes free will in humans possible]:
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20922
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Epicurus showed that the swerve can give free motion in the atoms
[Epicurus, by Diogenes of Oen.]
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21671
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Voluntary motion is intrinsically within our power, and this power is its cause
[Carneades, by Cicero]
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5709
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The actions of the mind are not determinate and passive, because atoms can swerve
[Lucretius]
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23332
|
Zeus gave me a nature which is free (like himself) from all compulsion
[Epictetus]
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5767
|
Rational natures require free will, in order to have power of judgement
[Boethius]
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22131
|
The will retains its power for opposites, even when it is acting
[Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
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19922
|
People are only free if they are guided entirely by reason
[Spinoza]
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23681
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The first motion or effect cannot be produced necessarily, so the First Cause must be a free agent
[Reid]
|
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3741
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We shall never be able to comprehend how freedom is possible
[Kant]
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21053
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The manifest will in the world of phenomena has to conform to the laws of nature
[Kant]
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23235
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I want independent control of the fundamental cause of my decisions
[Fichte]
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22040
|
Freedom is produced by the activity of the mind, and is not intrinsically given
[Hegel]
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22075
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Only idealism has given us the genuine concept of freedom
[Schelling]
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23111
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If we say that freedom depends on rationality, the irrational actions are not free
[Sidgwick]
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20323
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Freedom needs knowledge, the possibility of arbitrariness, and law
[Jaspers]
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23333
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The idea of free will achieved universal acceptance because of Christianity
[Frede,M]
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23334
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For Christians man has free will by creation in God's image (as in Genesis)
[Frede,M]
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23337
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The Stoics needed free will, to allow human choices in a divinely providential cosmos
[Frede,M]
|
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3791
|
Awareness of thought is a step beyond awareness of the world
[Dennett]
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3794
|
Foreknowledge permits control
[Dennett]
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