Theological Theses · §1777 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

The dispute over whether all acts of the will are free is a mere quarrel about words

So it is clear, as Strang admits in the passage cited, that the dispute between those who say all the will's acts are free and those who deny it is merely a quarrel about words (logomachia).

Those who say so take freedom broadly, as the willingness with which the will readily follows the intellect's judgement; in that sense no one would deny that every act of the will without exception is free. Those who deny it take freedom as the openness and indifference by nature that the will has toward acts that come under weighing and deliberation. In that sense it is obvious, and everyone grants, that the will is not free with respect to some of its acts.

But the broader use of 'freedom' is less accepted and less common, and we should speak with the majority as far as we can. So when we speak without qualification, it is entirely proper to deny rather than affirm that the will is free in acts where it exercises only the first kind of freedom and not the second, strict kind.

Latin

XXV. Unde patet, ut agnoscit Strangius loco citato, λογομαχίαν meram esse inter eos qui affirmant omnes voluntatis actiones liberas esse, & inter eos qui liberas esse negant. Nam qui istud affirmant libertatem late sumunt pro libentia illa qua voluntas ultro sequitur judicium intellectus, quo sensu nemo est qui neget omnem omnino voluntatis actionem liberam esse. Qui autem istud negant, libertatem accipiunt pro illa per naturam indeterminatione, & indifferentia, quae voluntati competit respectu actuum illorum qui sub deliberationem & consultationem cadunt. Quo sensu manifestum est, & ab omnibus concessum voluntatem liberam non esse respectu quorundam ipsius actuum. Sed cum latior ista libertatis acceptio minus recepta sit atque usitata, quantum autem fieri potest cum pluribus loquendum sit, quando simpliciter loquimur, omnino convenit, ut potius negemus, quam affirmemus voluntatem liberam esse in iis actibus, circa quos priorem tantum, non vero posteriorem & stricte dictam libertatem exercet.

Report a mistake in this passage