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Single Idea 20323

[filed under theme 16. Persons / F. Free Will / 2. Sources of Free Will ]

Full Idea

Without knowledge there is no freedom ....and without an arbitrary act there is no freedom, ....and there is no freedom without law.

Gist of Idea

Freedom needs knowledge, the possibility of arbitrariness, and law

Source

Karl Jaspers (Philosophy [1932], vol.2)

Book Ref

'Existentialism', ed/tr. Solomon,Robert C. [Modern Library 1974], p.151


A Reaction

He emphasises that an arbitrary act is not a free act, but it is a precondition for being free. The submission to law is active freedom. If you believe in education (and you should) you must believe that knowledge is liberating.

Related Idea

Idea 20324 My freedom increases as I broaden my vision of possiblities and motives [Jaspers]


The 20 ideas with the same theme [what makes free will in humans possible]:

Epicurus showed that the swerve can give free motion in the atoms [Epicurus, by Diogenes of Oen.]
Voluntary motion is intrinsically within our power, and this power is its cause [Carneades, by Cicero]
The actions of the mind are not determinate and passive, because atoms can swerve [Lucretius]
Zeus gave me a nature which is free (like himself) from all compulsion [Epictetus]
Rational natures require free will, in order to have power of judgement [Boethius]
The will retains its power for opposites, even when it is acting [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
People are only free if they are guided entirely by reason [Spinoza]
The first motion or effect cannot be produced necessarily, so the First Cause must be a free agent [Reid]
We shall never be able to comprehend how freedom is possible [Kant]
The manifest will in the world of phenomena has to conform to the laws of nature [Kant]
I want independent control of the fundamental cause of my decisions [Fichte]
Freedom is produced by the activity of the mind, and is not intrinsically given [Hegel]
Only idealism has given us the genuine concept of freedom [Schelling]
If we say that freedom depends on rationality, the irrational actions are not free [Sidgwick]
Freedom needs knowledge, the possibility of arbitrariness, and law [Jaspers]
The idea of free will achieved universal acceptance because of Christianity [Frede,M]
For Christians man has free will by creation in God's image (as in Genesis) [Frede,M]
The Stoics needed free will, to allow human choices in a divinely providential cosmos [Frede,M]
Awareness of thought is a step beyond awareness of the world [Dennett]
Foreknowledge permits control [Dennett]