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Single Idea 22504
[filed under theme 16. Persons / F. Free Will / 4. For Free Will
]
Full Idea
A human being is a starting point of some actions, and he alone of animals; for of nothing else should we say that it acted.
Gist of Idea
Only a human being can be a starting point for an action
Source
Aristotle (Eudemian Ethics [c.333 BCE], 1222b19)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Eudemian Ethics I,II and VIII', ed/tr. Woods,Michael [OUP 1992], p.21
A Reaction
It is a standard dogma that the idea of free will does not occur in Plato or Aristotle, but this looks awfully like it. I don't agree about animals. You watch them judging whether they can make a leap, and then doing it.
Related Idea
Idea 22508
Unlike in inanimate things, in animate things actions have more than one starting point [Aristotle]
The
22 ideas
with the same theme
[defences of the existence of wills which are free]:
22504
|
Only a human being can be a starting point for an action
[Aristotle]
|
14516
|
There is no necessity to live with necessity
[Epicurus]
|
20834
|
Chrysippus allows evil to say it is fated, or even that it is rational and natural
[Plutarch on Chrysippus]
|
23338
|
You can fetter my leg, but not even Zeus can control my power of choice
[Epictetus]
|
1856
|
Nothing can be willed except what is good, but good is very varied, and so choices are unpredictable
[Aquinas]
|
1861
|
The will is not compelled to move, even if pleasant things are set before it
[Aquinas]
|
1862
|
However habituated you are, given time to ponder you can go against a habit
[Aquinas]
|
1853
|
Because the will moves by examining alternatives, it doesn't compel itself to will
[Aquinas]
|
1849
|
Since will is a reasoning power, it can entertain opposites, so it is not compelled to embrace one of them
[Aquinas]
|
2282
|
My capacity to make choices with my free will extends as far as any faculty ever could
[Descartes]
|
4310
|
We have inner awareness of our freedom
[Descartes]
|
23668
|
Our own nature attributes free determinations to our own will
[Reid]
|
23680
|
We are morally free, because we experience it, we are accountable, and we pursue projects
[Reid]
|
9756
|
We must be free, because we can act against our strongest desires
[Kant, by Korsgaard]
|
5597
|
If there is a first beginning, there can be other sequences initiated from nothing
[Kant]
|
3740
|
We cannot conceive of reason as being externally controlled
[Kant]
|
21965
|
Spinoza could not actually believe his determinism, because living requires free will
[Fichte]
|
20322
|
I am aware that freedom is possible, and the freedom is not in theory, but in seeking freedom
[Jaspers]
|
3444
|
If actions are not caused by other events, and are not causeless, they must be caused by the person
[Chisholm]
|
3808
|
Rational decision making presupposes free will
[Searle]
|
3817
|
Free will is most obvious when we choose between several reasons for an action
[Searle]
|
3818
|
We freely decide whether to make a reason for action effective
[Searle]
|