Single Idea 23320

[catalogued under 20. Action / B. Preliminaries of Action / 2. Willed Action / a. Will to Act]

Full Idea

In Aristotle choices are not explained in terms of a will, but in terms of the attachment of reason to the good, however conceived, and the exercise of reason to determine how the good might best be obtained.

Gist of Idea

Choice is not explained by the will, but by the operation of reason when it judges what is good

Source

report of Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1112b11-24) by Michael Frede - A Free Will 2

Book Reference

Frede,Michael: 'A Free Will' [Univ of California 2011], p.27


A Reaction

I am personally happy to use the concept of the 'will', as the faculty which makes the final arbitration between competing mental drives, but this idea shows that the whole issue could be managed without it.