The will, also called freedom of choice, is the greatest perfection in us. It is not restricted in any way by God or any other force. In fact, Descartes’ almost puts the meditator on par with God concerning this freedom in the fact that “[God’s will] does not seem any greater than mine” (CSM 40). Descartes’ defines will as “our ability to do or not do something” (CSM 40). Ok, simple enough. Say, there is a pie cooling on the windowsill (I’m fairly certain this practice ended about the same time that “Father Knows Best” went off the air- but just work with me here). Complete freedom is our ability to choose to eat the pie or not eat the pie because there are no other options concerning the pie. Well, kind of. Being indifferent to the pie is also a freedom in itself, but a weak one. It is from this that Descartes’ two kinds of freedom are defined: by whether the will is used or not used in making a choice.
Warning! I’m about to go off topic in this paragraph. Please feel free to skip to the next one.
This concept of weak and strong freedom is, as I understand it, that if we are inclined to eat the pie (through clear understanding, divine grace, or natural knowledge) we are freer and if we are indifferent (no reason leading us one way or the other) this is the “lowest grade of freedom” (CSM 40). Wait… what? There are better or worse freedoms? But more than that, we are actually more free if we are moved by either inward or divine force to making a decision one way or the other? It seems to me that freedom is freedom and it can’t be varied especially if it is just in our knowledge or understanding of the thing we are making the choice on. In fact, just my gut reaction is that it is the exact opposite of what Descartes is claiming. We are freer to make decisions if we have no inclination either way. No bias, no “divine grace” pushing us, no inclinations- just us and our will. Yes, Father... I mean God... does know best because of his perfection, but I don't understand what freeom has to do with perfection. Freedom isn't correctly or incorrectly used, in my view. Freedom just is. But that’s beside the point…
So, there seems to be two major categories of freedom: the freedom of indifference and The Other freedom. It is this second kind of freedom that greatly confuses me. I don’t know exactly what to call it. I want to call it freedom of inclination, but this seems somewhat troubling. Hatfield specifically calls this second freedom “freedom in acting in accordance with our own will” or “freedom of spontaneity” (Hatfield 193). It is self-determinism. We are free, but at the same time our will has determined the right choice for us. So, we can be either have less freedom by not being having our free will determined or we can have more freedom by having our choices already made for us. Then my head explodes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
So I just realized that I haven't commented on someone's yet, so you get to be the winner. It's been a while since these blogs, so bear with me if I don't remember everything as clearly as I would have a couple weeks ago.
At first glance I was sort of troubled by what Descartes had to say about freedom as well. It seems weird that when we are inclined we are more free than when we have nothing pushing us either way. However, I am an indecisive person. I basically hate it when I am not inclined anyway. I hate when I have all the choices in the world and seem to be free. I feel trapped into having to make decisions that I don't even care about. However, when I am inclined a given way for one reason or another then I feel I can evaluate my decision. I feel freer in my choice because I have some sense of passion for what I'm doing. Maybe I'm not any freer, but I could see it being a higher sense of freedom. Furthermore, I'm still making my own decision. I just have better tools to use in making the given decision. Even if I'm inclined one way I still have the choice to not go that direction, but now I have some purpose either way, some care in the world about it. The freedom is higher in that there's some sense of thought behind it and you are not just pulling it out of thin air.
Post a Comment