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Single Idea 2223

[filed under theme 16. Persons / F. Free Will / 7. Compatibilism ]

Full Idea

By liberty we can only mean a power of acting or not acting according to the determinations of the will, …which is universally allowed to everyone who is not a prisoner and in chains.

Gist of Idea

Liberty is merely acting according to the will, which anyone can do if they are not in chains

Source

David Hume (Enquiry Conc Human Understanding [1748], VIII.I.73)

Book Ref

Hume,David: 'Enquiries Conc. Human Understanding, Morals', ed/tr. Selby-Bigge/Nidditch [OUP 1975], p.95


The 12 ideas with the same theme [free will is possible in a deterministic worlc]:

We should not refer things to irresponsible necessity, but either to fortune or to our own will [Epicurus]
Destiny is only a predisposing cause, not a sufficient cause [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]
Liberty and necessity are consistent, as when water freely flows, by necessity [Hobbes]
Liberty is a power of agents, so can't be an attribute of wills [Locke]
A man is free insofar as he can act according to his own preferences [Locke]
The will determines action, by what is seen as good, but it does not necessitate it [Leibniz]
Everything which happens is not necessary, but is certain after God chooses this universe [Leibniz]
Liberty is merely acting according to the will, which anyone can do if they are not in chains [Hume]
Hume makes determinism less rigid by removing the necessity from causation [Trusted on Hume]
In abstraction, beyond finitude, freedom and necessity must exist together [Hegel]
Determinism clashes with free will, as the past determines action, and is beyond our control [Inwagen, by Jackson]
Free will and determinism are incompatible, since determinism destroys human choice [Merricks]