About This Book
The essay investigates whether human freedom of will can be deduced from mere self-consciousness, beginning with careful definitions that treat freedom as a negative concept and distinguishing physical, intellectual, and moral varieties. It analyzes how physical obstacles differ from motivating reasons, examines the nature of motives as causes of action, and exposes the regress involved in demanding an antecedentless act of willing. By contrasting empirical notions of being able to act with metaphysical liberum arbitrium, it argues that introspection does not establish an uncaused, absolutely free will but shows willing to be conditioned by motives and external determinants.
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