5. The relation of the ideas of Liberty and Necessity to those of
obligation, merit and demerit, &c., next demand our attention. If the
doctrine of Necessity is true, the idea of Liberty is, as we have seen,
a chimera. With it the idea of obligation can have no connection or
alliance; but must rest exclusively upon that of Necessity. Now, how
happens it, that no man holding the doctrine of Liberty was ever known
to deny that of obligation, or of merit and demerit? How happens it,
that the validity of neither of these ideas has ever, in any age or
nation, been denied, except on the avowed authority of the doctrine of
Necessity? Sceptics of the class who deny moral obligation, are
universally avowed Necessitarians. We may safely challenge the world to
produce a single exception to this statement. We may challenge the world
to produce an individual in ancient or modern times who holds the
doctrine of Liberty, and denies moral obligation, or an individual who
denies moral obligation on any other ground than that of Necessity. Now,
how can this fact be accounted for, that the ideas of obligation, merit
and demerit, &c., universally attach themselves to a chimera, the idea
of Liberty, and stand in such irreconcilable hostility to the only idea
by which, as Necessitarians will have it, their validity is affirmed?
6. Finally, If the doctrine of Necessity is true, the phenomena of the
Intelligence, Sensibility, and the Will, are given in Consciousness as
alike necessary. The idea of Liberty, then, if it does exist in the
mind, would not be likely to attach itself to either of these classes of
phenomena; and if to either, it would be just as likely to attach itself
to one class as to another. Now, how shall we account for the fact, that
this idea always attaches itself to one of these classes of phenomena,
those of the Will, and never to either of the others? How is it that all
men agree in holding, that, in the circumstances of their occurrence,
the phenomena of the Intelligence and Sensibility cannot but be what
they are, while those of the Will may be otherwise than they are? Why,
if this chimera, the idea of Liberty, attaches itself to either of these
classes, does it not sometimes attach itself to the phenomena of the
Intelligence or Sensibility, as well as to those of the Will? Here, once
again, we have an event without a cause, a distinction without a
difference, if the doctrine of Necessity is true. The facts before us
can be accounted for only on the supposition, that the phenomena of the
Intelligence and Sensibility are given in Consciousness as necessary,
while those of the Will are given as free.
THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERTY, THE DOCTRINE OF THE BIBLE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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