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FIRST CLASS OF OBJECTS FOE THE SUBJECT. 55
same necessity. For motivation * is only causality pass
ing through knowledge the intellect is the medium of the
;
motives, because it is the highest degree of receptivity. By
this, however, the law of causality loses nothing whatever
of its rigour and certainty; for motives are causes and
operate with the same necessity which all causes bring
with them. This necessity is easy to perceive in animals
because of the greater simplicity of their intellect, which is
limited to the perception of what is present. Man s in
tellect is double : for not only has he intuitive, but abstract,
knowledge, which last is not limited to what is present.
Man possesses Reason he therefore has a ;
power of elective
decision with clear consciousness : that is, he is able to weigh
against one another motives which exclude each other, as
such in other ;
terms, he can let them try their strength on
his will. The most powerful motive then decides him, and
his actions ensue with just the same necessity as the roll
of a ball after it has been struck. Freedom of Will *
ing
means (not professorial twaddle but)
"
that a given human
being, in a given situation, can act in two different ways."
But the utter absurdity of this assertion is a truth as
certain and as clearly proved, as any truth can be which
passes the limits of pure mathematics. In my Essay on
Free Will, to which the Norwegian Society awarded the
prize, this truth is demonstrated more clearly, methodi
cally, and thoroughly than has been done before by anyone
else, and this moreover with special reference to those
facts of our consciousness by which ignorant people
imagine that absurdity to be confirmed. In all that is
essential however, Hobbes, Spinoza, Priestley, Yoltaire,
1 The word "motivation," though it may appear objectionable
to the
English reader, seemed unavoidable here, as being Schopenhauer s own
term, for which there is no adequate equivalent in general use in our
language. [Translator s note.]
2 Here usedin theabsolute sense ofliberum arbitriumindiffercnticB. [Tr.]