[2] "The subjective sense of freedom, sometimes
alleged against Determinism, has no bearing on the
question whatever. The view that it has a bearing
rests upon the belief that causes compel their
effects, or that nature enforces obedience to its
laws as governments do. These are mere
anthropomorphic superstitions, due to assimilation
of causes with volitions, and of natural laws with
human edicts. We feel that our will is not
compelled, but that only means that it is not
other than we choose it to be. It is one of the
demerits of the traditional theory of causality
that it has created an artificial opposition
between determinism and the freedom of which we
are introspectively conscious." (Bertrand Russell,
_Mysticism and Logic_, p. 206.)
So also Wundt: "Freedom and constraint are
reciprocal concepts; they are both necessarily
connected with consciousness; outside of
consciousness they are both imaginary concepts,
which only a mythologising imagination could relate
to things." (_Human and Animal Psychology_, p.
426.)
Now let us take that equally confusing word "will." Unfortunately, few
of those who champion the freedom of the will think it worth while to
trouble their readers with a clear definition of what they mean by it.
The orthodox definition of the will as "a faculty of the soul" tells us
nothing. It is explaining something the existence of which is
questioned by reference to something else the existence of which is
unknown. Or the definition is volunteered, "Will is the power to
decide," a description which only tells us that to will is to will.
Professor James tells us that "Desire, wish, will, are states of mind
which every one knows, and which no definition can make plainer." This
may be true of desire and wish; it certainly is not true of "will."
There is no question as to "will" being a state of mind, but as to every
one knowing its character, and above all possessing the knowledge
enabling him to discriminate between "will" and "desire" and "wish,"
this is highly questionable. One may also be permitted the opinion that
if advocates of "free-will" were to seriously set themselves the task of
discovering what they do mean by "will," and also in what way it may be
differentiated from other mental states, the number of the champions of
that curious doctrine would rapidly diminish.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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