Full Idea
Epicurus was responsible for the innovatory recognition that the question of the will's freedom is central to ethics.
Gist of Idea
It was Epicurus who made the question of the will's freedom central to ethics
Source
report of Epicurus (fragments/reports [c.289 BCE]) by A.C. Grayling - What is Good? Ch.3
Book Reference
Grayling,A.C.: 'What is Good? The Best Way to Live' [Phoenix 2003], p.48
A Reaction
Compare Ideas 7672 and 6018. Obviously ethical action needs freedom, but the idea of a 'free will' is quite different. It is a fiction, created to give some sort of arrogant ultimate responsibility to our actions, like God.
Related Ideas
Idea 7672 The free will problem was invented by the Stoics [Stoic school, by Berlin]
Idea 6018 Epicurus was the first to see the free will problem, and he was a libertarian [Epicurus, by Long/Sedley]