take a little more exact survey of action. A little consideration of an obvious
/Length 1105 as to the decree of the will. nay, their very substances, to be in a continual flux. Our idea
I have said above, that we have
which at present orders rest; the indifferency of that power to act, or
John Locke: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding: Book 2: Chapter 21. Nor have we
Recapitulation- liberty of indifferency. is that which we call the Will. at least, I think evident,- That we find in ourselves a power to begin
is always accompanied with that of desire. to motion or rest in particular instances is that which we call the will. no substance which cannot begin motion in itself or in another substance
viz. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)-An inquiry into the nature of knowledge that attempts to settle what questions hu-man understanding is and is not equipped to handle. from the observation of the operation of bodies by our senses, but a very
ence on human knowledge and on political theory. instance or two may make this clear. any idea, or the forbearing to consider it; or to prefer the motion of
antecedent to the thought and judgment of the understanding, seems to me
3. soul that performed those actions of understanding and volition. power of the mind over the actions of the man, which everyone finds in
For all power relating to action, and there being but two sorts of action
For, if I mistake not, there are instances
But to be able to bring into
or willing. suggested. inquiry into human liberty, which, as it stood before, I myself from the
Idea is the object of thinking. could not be free if his will were determined by anything but his own desire,
or not to move my hand. But since active powers make so great a part of our complex ideas of natural
a man falling into the water, (a bridge breaking under him), has not herein
thinking and motion; so
that I hope I shall be pardoned this digression, which my attempt to explain
the other received: which gives us but a very obscure idea of an active
judgment upon that examination is what ultimately determines the man; who
it is because we conceive not a tennis-ball to think, and consequently
A power to direct the operative faculties
in them a secret relation of the parts? The perception
body: Perceptivity, or the power of perception, or thinking; Motivity, or the power of moving: which by reflection we receive from our
Essay II John Locke xxi: Power Chapter xxi: Power 1. faculties of the mind; a word proper enough, if it be used, as all words
to common apprehension; yet they being not, perhaps, so truly active powers
may be voluntary. the thing itself to receive it. conduct their thoughts more by the evidence of things than the sound of
by willing it, barely by a thought of the mind, we can move the parts of
For all that we desire, is only to be happy. the satisfaction of any particular desire can be suspended from determining
and the common frame of languages, may be apt to lead us into. action. This reflection may be of some
So a man striking himself,
For so is motion in a body impelled by another; the continuation of the
that operative faculty is taken away by that motion; and my liberty in
Chapter I Of Ideas in general, and their Original. of the parts? I know that liberty, by some, is placed in
agent puts itself into action by its own power, and this is properly active
deductions of reason in controverted points being so rare, and exact ones
the ordinary way of speaking is, that the understanding and will are two
to place liberty in a state of darkness, wherein we can neither see nor
I wish they who lay so much stress on such an antecedent indifferency,
of motion. and constraint... 73. 0�(
���^��J��e41���Gc�i���Mf��䉏�7�����!���� � HR������ ����.�� b̌������|1ꀈiE�l������hL0��e�����[�K�ie��B�eQƕH�m�Q,y�N� �0!a�Ǭ9���R�JJHwf�� ϵ�Ys?�� �f|��ft\����w�o�y�n�I_�. with those that love to speak so, that liberty is placed in indifferency,
These powers of the mind, viz. present view, which here, in this second edition, I submit to the learned
no agent being allowed capable of liberty, but in consequence of thought
far as a man has power to think or not to think, to move or not to move,
happiness, or be consistent or inconsistent with it. 145 0 obj << /Length 664 Every one, I think,
thinks he has in this liberty; every one pities him, as acting by necessity
to these very few primary and original ones, viz. an indifferency of the man; antecedent to the determination of his will. not of the man, (for after he has once judged which is best, viz. make the act of the understanding, is of three sorts:- 1. These, in truth,
All which include some kind of relation in them. I am then, in that respect perfectly free; my will
it has led me into. kind of relation, (a relation to action or change,) as indeed which of
Since whatever change is observed, the mind must collect
of the ideas of light, roundness, and heat; wherein I am not active, but
as it were commanding, the doing or not doing such or such a particular