6. El fenómeno social motivo de análisis
6.8. La concepción suma-cero del poder
pogeihle, and that ie the oao Vhieh aafeca Mhorby "a power,
epportonityi adamtago, that may erne hae to do aa ho pleaoei^
Or, if i t «U1 «nit tho porpoae bettor, ie willing to do*
fine Idhwty in megativo term aa
"Ida being fro# from
— 99 —
hindrance or Impodlomt In the way of doing, or oenduoting, ia any respect, as he wills"# The very opposite of Llhertgr, end th is is important, is a person's being hindered or w
ACT
able to een#w«e as he iaill% or being neoo&sitated to do otherwise thajv he wills*
All th is appears very clear, and quite convincing; and i t is obvious that Edwards is not saying anything whloh eon* f lic ts with his previous exposition of Determinism#
He strengthens th is argument fo r such Freedom toy in sistin g upon his previous argument th at such Freedom i s oonoexned with the person and not with the mere will* I t is only
that which possesses a Will «hich cam be free or otherwise* I t i s not the W ill, but the agent who has a w ill that the disouseian must cenoem# the Will le simply
m
property or attrib u te of man, and i t is the whole nan «ho is the doer, or the active agent* There are, a t le a s t, two things wh oh can destroy Freedom# these are constraint, that is ,a
person being compelled or noose s i tated doing something Whloh be does not w ill to do; and R estraint, that i s ,a
person being held back or hindered from doing ohat he w illsto do# Wow, says Edwards, there is a vezy grave error in the minds of certain person^ Who disousk Liberty and Wecessity, and that is the mrrov of thinking th at doing what one w ills is not a sufficient «mplanation of Freedcm. They imegine that i t is th eir task to trace out the causes wby people will* In other worAe, they are not sa tisfied with Choice as
a
decislcn of the Kind, but try to find out the original Gauss
&f
such ca&oioe.Edwards Is no opponent of what sight be termed psychological investigation, but he warns against Its dangers, that i s , as an argwmmt for real Freedom* The main thing is 'Uzat the pereomi w ills, and, when he w ills, does what he thinks agree
able to his mind. In other words, he does What he pleases, and that ought to be enough evidence of Freedom#
- 100 -
"Let the person oosae by his volition or dholee hov he w ill, y et, i f he is able, and there i s nothing in the VRy to hinder hie pureuing and eoceeuting hi# w ill,
the man is fu lly and perfeotly fre e , aooording to the primary and ooraaoa notion of freedom^
This is a very importmit statem m t, and i t w ill be in te r esting to Observe how ;Amrda works out i t s fu ll and fin al implication#*
Here end now, i t must be observed that Edvard# thinks that there are only three main arguments vhioh oan be directed against his system* They are (a) that the Will hae a power of determining its e lf , (b) that the Will ie Zndifferent in the act
ù£
Volition, and (o) that the freedom of the ./ill ie b u ilt m)on the dontingenoy of the will* He w ill examinethese point# of view i a turn, but the present exposition of hi# system
mmt
keep to the main lin e of argument.Tn
order to keep to the main argument of Determinism and Morality i t w ill be nooessary to put aside, for the time being, the replies of mhrnrd# to What he think# aremrroneou# tdems of hmmin Freedom, end take up tho main orgomant whidhoomee m<ùx la te r in hlk e3Qx)altion* Here, he comes to grlM
with the problem by quoting one of hie oppensnt# as seying#- "If a l l human action# are aeeeasaxy, v lrtn e and vice
must be empty names; we being capable of nothim that is blamevorMzy, or deserveth praie#; for who oan blame a person fo r doing only iMiat he could not help, or judge th at he A ess^eth ^poise only fo r
what he could net avoid"* v2l
Mow, in fairness to mhrnrd#, th is criticism , on the surface, ie a parody of Ihe iqrstem of Determinism which he ha© so far eapounded* He would h eartily agree that virtue and vice are mqpty name# i f a person is neocseltated in action# wbiab he could not help or avoid* #o fa r, he has r^zudiated such neae^sary action# a# consistent only with Fatalism, which he ha# condmOMd. However, in equal fairness to his oppcm-
ent, i t must be boms in mind that the above charge is (1) me Freedom of the will* Ft*l# dect.d*
- loi -