An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1: MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2Locke, John
Philosophy
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1: MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2
Locke, John
Knowledge, Theory of -- Early works to 1800
desire, will, and act according to the last result of a fair
examination.
49. To be determined by our own Judgment, is no Restraint to Liberty.
This is so far from being a restraint or diminution of freedom, that it
is the very improvement and benefit of it; it is not an abridgment, it
is the end and use of our liberty; and the further we are removed from
such a determination, the nearer we are to misery and slavery. A
perfect indifference in the mind, not determinable by its last judgment
of the good or evil that is thought to attend its choice, would be so
far from being an advantage and excellency of any intellectual nature,
that it would be as great an imperfection, as the want of indifferency
to act, or not to act, till determined by the will, would be an
imperfection on the other side. A man is at liberty to lift up his hand
to his head, or let it rest quiet: he is perfectly indifferent in
either; and it would be an imperfection in him, if he wanted that
power, if he were deprived of that indifferency. But it would be as
great an imperfection, if he had the same indifferency, whether he
would prefer the lifting up his hand, or its remaining in rest, when it
would save his head or eyes from a blow he sees coming: it is as much a
perfection, that desire, or the power of preferring, should be
determined by good, as that the power of acting should be determined by
the will; and the certainer such determination is, the greater is the
perfection. Nay, were we determined by anything but the last result of
our own minds, judging of the good or evil of any action, we were not
free.
50. The freest Agents are so determined.
If we look upon those superior beings above us, who enjoy perfect
happiness, we shall have reason to judge that they are more steadily
determined in their choice of good than we; and yet we have no reason
to think they are less happy, or less free, than we are. And if it were
fit for such poor finite creatures as we are to pronounce what infinite
wisdom and goodness could do, I think we might say, that God himself
CANNOT choose what is not good; the freedom of the Almighty hinders not
his being determined by what is best.
51. A constant Determination to a Pursuit of Happiness no Abridgment of
Liberty.
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