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Single Idea 23329
[filed under theme 16. Persons / F. Free Will / 1. Nature of Free Will
]
Full Idea
Progress is when any of you turns to his own faculty of choice, working at it and perfecting it, so as to bring it fully into harmony with nature; elevated, free, unrestrained, unhindered, faithful, self-respecting.
Gist of Idea
We make progress when we improve and naturalise our choices, asserting their freedom
Source
Epictetus (The Discourses [c.56], 1.04.18)
Book Ref
Epictetus: 'The Discourses, The Handbook, Fragments', ed/tr. Gill,C [Everyman 1995], p.13
A Reaction
[See also Disc.3.5.7] Rationality is the stoic concept of being in 'harmony with nature'. It appears (from reading Frede) that this may be the FIRST EVER reference to free will. Note the very rhetorical way in which it is presented.
Related Idea
Idea 23328
The essences of good and evil are in dispositions to choose [Epictetus]
The
30 ideas
with the same theme
[what exactly a free will is understood to be]:
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5118
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Anaxagoras says mind remains pure, and so is not affected by what it changes
[Anaxagoras, by Aristotle]
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8007
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Aristotle never discusses free will
[Aristotle, by MacIntyre]
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12961
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For an action to be 'free', it must be deliberate as well as unconstrained
[Aristotle, by Leibniz]
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4118
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A human being fathers his own actions as he fathers his children
[Aristotle]
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6018
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Epicurus was the first to see the free will problem, and he was a libertarian
[Epicurus, by Long/Sedley]
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23329
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We make progress when we improve and naturalise our choices, asserting their freedom
[Epictetus]
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23342
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Freedom is acting by choice, with no constraint possible
[Epictetus]
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23330
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Freedom is making all things happen by choice, without constraint
[Epictetus]
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5771
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Knowledge of present events doesn't make them necessary, so future events are no different
[Boethius]
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22111
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Aquinas attributes freedom to decisions and judgements, and not to the will alone
[Aquinas, by Kretzmann/Stump]
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2283
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Our 'will' just consists of the feeling that when we are motivated to do something, there are no external pressures
[Descartes]
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5010
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Our free will is so self-evident to us that it must be a basic innate idea
[Descartes]
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4814
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A thing is free if it acts by necessity of its own nature, and the act is determined by itself alone
[Spinoza]
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3792
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We are free to decide not to follow our desires
[Locke]
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5023
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Future contingent events are certain, because God foresees them, but that doesn't make them necessary
[Leibniz]
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3447
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All theory is against free will, and all experience is in favour of it
[Johnson,S]
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5596
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We must assume an absolute causal spontaneity beginning from itself
[Kant]
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3739
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Free will is a kind of causality which works independently of other causes
[Kant]
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23237
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The capacity for freedom is above the laws of nature, with its own power of purpose and will
[Fichte]
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23244
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Forming purposes is absolutely free, and produces something from nothing
[Fichte]
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21780
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A free will primarily wills its own freedoom
[Hegel, by Houlgate]
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3846
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Man IS freedom
[Sartre]
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9249
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Whether we are free is uninteresting; we can only experience our freedom
[Camus]
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9267
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Free will is the capacity to choose what sort of will you have
[Frankfurt]
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3292
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The most difficult problem of free will is saying what the problem is
[Nagel]
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3800
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You can be free even though force would have prevented you doing otherwise
[Dennett, by PG]
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3803
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Can we conceive of a being with a will freer than our own?
[Dennett]
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2545
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Free will is mental causation in action
[McGinn]
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5338
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Normal free will claims control of what I do, but a stronger view claims control of thought and feeling
[Flanagan]
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5344
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Free will is held to give us a whole list of desirable capacities for living
[Flanagan]
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