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Full Idea
Liberty and necessity are consistent: as in the water, that hath not only liberty, but a necessity of descending by the channel.
Gist of Idea
Liberty and necessity are consistent, as when water freely flows, by necessity
Source
Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan [1651], II.Ch.XI)
Book Ref
'British Moralists 1650-1800 Vol. 1', ed/tr. Raphael,D.D. [Hackett 1991], p.56
A Reaction
Hume asserts something similar (Idea 2223), but they both miss the point, which is that libertarians about water would have to believe it didn't need to follow gravity, but could refuse to flow. Freedom of will and freedom of action are quite different.
Related Idea
Idea 2223 Liberty is merely acting according to the will, which anyone can do if they are not in chains [Hume]
| 1837 | We should not refer things to irresponsible necessity, but either to fortune or to our own will [Epicurus] |
| 5971 | Destiny is only a predisposing cause, not a sufficient cause [Chrysippus, by Plutarch] |
| 6214 | Liberty and necessity are consistent, as when water freely flows, by necessity [Hobbes] |
| 12492 | Liberty is a power of agents, so can't be an attribute of wills [Locke] |
| 12493 | A man is free insofar as he can act according to his own preferences [Locke] |
| 19368 | The will determines action, by what is seen as good, but it does not necessitate it [Leibniz] |
| 5031 | Everything which happens is not necessary, but is certain after God chooses this universe [Leibniz] |
| 2223 | Liberty is merely acting according to the will, which anyone can do if they are not in chains [Hume] |
| 3655 | Hume makes determinism less rigid by removing the necessity from causation [Trusted on Hume] |
| 15617 | In abstraction, beyond finitude, freedom and necessity must exist together [Hegel] |
| 6981 | Determinism clashes with free will, as the past determines action, and is beyond our control [Inwagen, by Jackson] |
| 6149 | Free will and determinism are incompatible, since determinism destroys human choice [Merricks] |