The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 05 (of 11)

The work stages a systematic debate about whether events are produced by necessity, chance, or human freedom. Two interlocutors set out opposing positions and dissect scriptural, scholastic, and naturalistic arguments while clarifying key distinctions, especially between being free to act and being free to will. It challenges claims that divine foreknowledge or divine will makes future actions necessary, questions the efficacy of moral causation as distinct from natural causes, and considers how chance might operate. Arguments are arranged into definitional sections and practical consequences, with attention to religious, ethical, and everyday implications of each stance.