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Single Idea 5767
[filed under theme 16. Persons / F. Free Will / 2. Sources of Free Will
]
Full Idea
There is freedom of the will, for it would be impossible for any rational nature to exist without it. Whatever by nature has the use of reason has the power of judgement to decide each matter.
Gist of Idea
Rational natures require free will, in order to have power of judgement
Source
Boethius (The Consolations of Philosophy [c.520], V.II)
Book Ref
Boethius: 'The Consolations of Philosophy', ed/tr. Watts,V.E. [Penguin 1969], p.149
A Reaction
A view taken up by Aquinas (Idea 1849) and Kant (Idea 3740). The 'power of judgement' pinpoints the core of rationality, and it is not clear how a robot could fulfil such a power, if it lacked consciousness. Does a machine 'judge' barcodes?
Related Ideas
Idea 1849
Since will is a reasoning power, it can entertain opposites, so it is not compelled to embrace one of them [Aquinas]
Idea 3740
We cannot conceive of reason as being externally controlled [Kant]
The
20 ideas
with the same theme
[what makes free will in humans possible]:
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20922
|
Epicurus showed that the swerve can give free motion in the atoms
[Epicurus, by Diogenes of Oen.]
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21671
|
Voluntary motion is intrinsically within our power, and this power is its cause
[Carneades, by Cicero]
|
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5709
|
The actions of the mind are not determinate and passive, because atoms can swerve
[Lucretius]
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23332
|
Zeus gave me a nature which is free (like himself) from all compulsion
[Epictetus]
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5767
|
Rational natures require free will, in order to have power of judgement
[Boethius]
|
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22131
|
The will retains its power for opposites, even when it is acting
[Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
|
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19922
|
People are only free if they are guided entirely by reason
[Spinoza]
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23681
|
The first motion or effect cannot be produced necessarily, so the First Cause must be a free agent
[Reid]
|
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3741
|
We shall never be able to comprehend how freedom is possible
[Kant]
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21053
|
The manifest will in the world of phenomena has to conform to the laws of nature
[Kant]
|
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23235
|
I want independent control of the fundamental cause of my decisions
[Fichte]
|
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22040
|
Freedom is produced by the activity of the mind, and is not intrinsically given
[Hegel]
|
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22075
|
Only idealism has given us the genuine concept of freedom
[Schelling]
|
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23111
|
If we say that freedom depends on rationality, the irrational actions are not free
[Sidgwick]
|
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20323
|
Freedom needs knowledge, the possibility of arbitrariness, and law
[Jaspers]
|
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23333
|
The idea of free will achieved universal acceptance because of Christianity
[Frede,M]
|
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23334
|
For Christians man has free will by creation in God's image (as in Genesis)
[Frede,M]
|
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23337
|
The Stoics needed free will, to allow human choices in a divinely providential cosmos
[Frede,M]
|
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3791
|
Awareness of thought is a step beyond awareness of the world
[Dennett]
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3794
|
Foreknowledge permits control
[Dennett]
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