Liberty Worth the Name

by Yaffe, Gideon

• ISBN13: 9780691057064
• ISBN10: 0691057060
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-02
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

This is the first comprehensive interpretation of John Locke's solution to one of philosophy's most enduring problems: free will and the nature of human agency. Many assume that Locke defines freedom as merely the dependency of conduct on our wills. And much contemporary philosophical literature on free agency regards freedom as a form of self-expression in action. Here, Gideon Yaffe shows us that Locke conceived free agency not just as the freedom to express oneself, but as including also the freedom to transcend oneself and act in accordance with "the good." For Locke, exercising liberty involves making choices guided by what is good, valuable, and important. Thus, Locke's view is part of a tradition that finds freedom in the imitation of God's agency. Locke's free agent is the ideal agent. Yaffe also examines Locke's understanding of volition and voluntary action. For Locke, choices always involve self-consciousness. The kind of self-consciousness to which Locke appeals is intertwined with his conception of personal identity. And it is precisely this connection between the will and personal identity that reveals the special sense in which our voluntary actions can be attributed to us and the special sense in which we are active with respect to them. Deftly written and tightly focused,Liberty Worth the Namewill find readers far beyond Locke studies and early modern British philosophy, including scholars interested in free will, action theory, and ethics.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	3	(9)
A Second Perfection	12	(63)
Freedom of Action	13	(8)
Freedom of Will: The Negative Views	21	(10)
Free Wills	22	(5)
Free Volitions	27	(4)
The Elusive Something and Freedom of Will: The Positive Views	31	(34)
The First Edition	32	(10)
The Second and Latter Editions	42	(19)
Some Consequences of the Second Edition Account	61	(4)
Freedom of Will and the Natural Law Theory	65	(6)
Conclusion	71	(4)
Volition and Voluntary Action	75	(43)
Action and Active Powers	78	(10)
Passion and Proper Action	79	(3)
Active and Passive Power	82	(3)
Two Degrees of Attributability	85	(3)
What Are Volitions?	88	(11)
A Quick Look Back	98	(1)
Voluntary Action	99	(18)
The Necessity of Causation by Volition for Voluntariness	100	(4)
The (Non) Sufficiency of Causation by Volition for Voluntariness	104	(3)
An Alternative Interpretation	107	(5)
The Power to Act Voluntarily	112	(1)
The Special Attributability of Voluntary Action	112	(5)
Conclusion	117	(1)
Free Agency and Personal Identity	118	(23)
Choice and Personal Identity	119	(15)
Contemplation of (Temporally) Absent Pleasure and Pain	134	(5)
Conclusion	139	(2)
Notes	141	(20)
Bibliography	161	(8)
General Index	169	(6)
Index Locorum	175