The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 05 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
(_d_) “Thirdly, the question is not, whether all the actions of a man be
free, but whether they be ordinarily free.” Is it impossible for the
Bishop to remember the question, which is _whether a man be free to
will?_ Did I ever say, that no actions of a man are free? On the
contrary, I say that all his voluntary actions are free, even those also
to which he is compelled by fear. But it does not therefore follow but
that the will, from whence those actions and their election proceed, may
have necessary causes, against which he hath never yet said anything.
That which followeth immediately, is not offered as a proof, but as
explication, how the passions of a man surprise him; therefore I let it
pass, noting only that he expoundeth _motus primo primi_, which I
understood not before, by the word _antipathy_.
(_e_) “A necessity of supposition is of two kinds; sometimes a thing
supposed, is in the power of the agent to do or not to do, &c.;
sometimes a thing supposed, is not in the power of the agent to do or
not to do,” &c.
When the necessity is of the former kind of supposition, then, he says,
freedom may consist with this necessity, in the latter sense that it
cannot. And to use his own instances, to vow continence in a Romish
priest, upon supposition that he is a Romish priest, is a necessary act,
because it was in his power to be a priest or not. On the other side,
supposing a man having a natural antipathy against a cat; because this
antipathy is not in the power of the party affected, therefore the
running away from the cat is no free act.