GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL 267
perceives to be the superior goodness of A as compared
with B. But determination by the Good or, to elaborate
the phrase, freedom to escape from inherited or constitu-
tional bias and to be determined solely by the Good is all
that the advocate of free will can fairly claim.
is one which I have
(5) We might add the already made above
formation of what is
point
in another connection that the
commonly known as "character"
consists precisely in the ability to eliminate the bias
imparted to our wills by factors outside our control,
whether inherited, environmental or constitutional, and
to choose precisely what seems to us, as the result of an
impartial consideration of all the available data, to be
the best or most reasonable course.
The Nature of the Faculty Involved in Choice.
will be observed that throughout the foregoing the stress
has been laid upon reasonable choice. This stress is deliberate.
I have already emphasized the point that, if the faculty
with which we choose is impulse or desire, if choice i$
primarily an expression of the appetitive, or emotional
parts of our nature, then it is difficult, if not impossible,
to
emancipate it from determination by the various factors
of heredity, environment, constitution, disposition and the
rest; for it is the non-rational aspects ofour nature which are
pre-eminently the products of these factors. The question
discussed above, whether reason can ever motivate to
action, is, therefore, highly
It
relevant to our consideration
of the frccwill-detcrminist issue. I have already glanced
at the considerations which have been adduced by those
who deny that reason ever can. What is there to be said
on the other side?
Nothing in the nature of proof
resort we can only consult our own consciousnesses and ask
is available. In the last
ourselves whether what is commonly called thought ever
does prompt our actions, and, where the issue raised
involves an appeal to introspection, it may be doubted
whether the philosopher has anything of special value to