it, that the word _inability_ is used in a sense very diverse from its
original import. The word signifies only a natural inability, in the
proper use of it; and is applied to such cases only wherein a present
will or inclination to the thing, with respect to which a person is said
to be unable, is supposable. It cannot be truly said, _according to the
ordinary use of language_, that a malicious man, let him be never so
malicious, cannot hold his hand from striking, or that he is not able to
show his neighbour a kindness; or that a drunkard, let his appetite be
never so strong, cannot keep the cup from his mouth. _In the strictest
propriety of speech, a man has a thing in his power if he has it in his
choice or at his election; and a man cannot be truly said to be unable
to do a thing, when he can do it if he will_." (ibid.)
Men, in the common use of language, and in the expression of their
common and generally received sentiments, affirm that an individual has
any thing in his power when it can be controlled by volition. Their
connexion of power does not arise from the connexion of volition with
its cause, but from the conception of volition as itself a cause with
its effects. Thus the hand of a malicious man when moved to strike,
having for its antecedent a volition; and if withheld from striking,
having for its antecedent likewise a volition; according to the common
usage of language, he, as the subject of volition, has the power to
strike or not to strike. Now as it is "improperly said that he cannot
perform those external voluntary actions which depend on the will, it is
in some respects more improperly said, that he is unable to exert the
acts of the will themselves; because it is more evidently false, with
respect to these, that he cannot if he will; for to say so is a
downright contradiction; it is to say he _cannot_ will if he _does_
will: and, in this case, not only is it true that it is easy for a man
to do the thing if he will, but the very willing is the doing." (ibid.)
It is improper, according to this, to say that a man cannot do a thing,
when nothing is wanting but an act of volition; for that is within our
power, as far as it can be within our power, which is within the reach
of our volition.
It is still more improper to say that a man is unable to exert the acts
of the will themselves, or unable to produce volitions. To say that a
man has power to produce volitions, would imply that he has power to
will volitions; but this would make one volition the cause of another,
which is absurd. But, as it is absurd to represent the will as the cause
of its own volitions, and of course to say that the man has ability to
produce his volitions, it must be absurd likewise to represent the man
as _unable_, in any particular case, to produce volitions, for this
would imply that in other cases he is able. Nay, the very language is
self-contradictory. If a man produce volitions, he must produce them by
volitions; and if in any case he is affirmed to be unable to produce
volitions; then this inability must arise from a want of connexion
between the volition by which the required volition is aimed to be
produced, and the required volition itself. So that to affirm that he is
unable to will is equivalent to saying, that he cannot will _if he
will_--a proposition which grants the very point it assumes to deny.
"The very willing is the doing," which is required.
Edwards adopts what he calls the "original" and "proper," meaning of
power, and ability, as applied to human agents, and appearing, "in the
ordinary use of language," as the legitimate and true meaning. In this
use, power, as we have seen, relates only to the connexion of volition
with its consequents, and not to its connexion with its antecedents or
motives. Hence, in reference to the human agent, "to ascribe a
non-performance to the want of power or ability," or to the want of
motives, (for this is plainly his meaning,) "is not just," "because the
thing wanting," that is, immediately wanting, and wanting so far as the
agent himself can be the subject of remark in respect of it, "is not a
being _able_," that is, a having the requisite motives, or the moral
ability, "but a being _willing_, or the act of volition, itself. To the
act of volition, or the fact of 'being willing,'" there is no facility
of mind or capacity of nature wanting, but only a disposition or state
of mind adapted to the act; but with this, the individual can have no
concern in reference to his action, because he has all the ability which
can be predicated of him legitimately, when he can do the act, if he
will to do it. It is evident that there may be an utter moral inability
to do a thing--that is the motive may be wanting which causes the
volition, which is the immediate antecedent of the thing to be done; but
still if it is true that there is such a connexion between the volition
and the thing to be done, that the moment the volition takes place the
thing is done; then, according to Edwards, the man may be affirmed to be
able to do it with the only ability that can be affirmed of him.
We can exert power only by exerting will, that is by putting forth
volitions by choosing; of course we cannot exert power over those
motives which are themselves the causes of our volitions. We are not
_unable_ to do anything in the proper and original and legitimate use of
the word when, for the want of motive, we are not the subjects of the
volition required as the immediate antecedent of the thing to be done;
but we are _unable_ in this use when, although the volition be made;
still, through some impediment, the thing is not done. We are conscious
of power, or of the want of power only in the connexion between our
actual volitions and their objects.
"Sec. V. Concerning the Notion of Liberty, and of moral Agency."
What is liberty? "The plain and obvious meaning of the words _freedom_
and _liberty_, in common speech, is _power, opportunity, or advantage
that any one has to do as he pleases_. Or, in other words, his being
free from hinderance, or impediment in the way of doing, or conducting
in any way as he wills. And the _contrary_ to liberty, whatever name we
call it by, is a person's being hindered or unable to conduct as he
will, or being, necessitated to do otherwise." (p. 38.) Again, "That
power and opportunity for one to do and conduct as he will, or according
to his choice, is all that is meant by it; without taking into the
meaning of the word, anything of the _cause_ of that choice, or at all
considering how the person came to have such a volition; whether it was
caused by some external motive, or internal habitual bias; whether it
was determined by some internal antecedent volition, or whether it
happened without a cause; whether it was necessarily connected with
something foregoing, or not connected. Let the person come by his choice
any how, yet if he is able, and there is nothing in the way to hinder
his pursuing and executing his will, the man is perfectly free,
according to the primary and common notion of freedom." (p. 39.)
This is Edwards's definition of liberty, and he has given it with a
clearness, a precision, and, at the same time, an amplification, which
renders it impossible to mistake his meaning.
Liberty has nothing to do with the connexion between volition and its
cause or motive. Liberty relates solely to the connexion between the
volition and its objects. He is free in the only true and proper sense,
who, when he wills, finds no impediment between the volition and the
object, who wills and it is done. He wills to walk, and his legs obey:
he wills to talk, and his intellect and tongue obey, and frame and
express sentences. If his legs were bound, he would not be free. If his
tongue were tied with a thong, or his mouth gagged, he would not be
free; or if his intellect were paralysed or disordered, he would not be
free. If there should be anything preventing the volition from taking
effect, he would not be free.
_Of what can the attribute of Liberty be affirmed?_
From the definition thus given Edwards remarks, "It will follow, that in
propriety of speech, neither liberty, nor its contrary, can properly be
ascribed to any being or thing, but that which has such a faculty,
power, or property, as is called will. For that which is possessed of no
_will_, cannot have any power or opportunity of doing _according to its
will_, nor be necessitated to act contrary to its will, nor be
restrained from acting agreeable to it. And therefore to talk of
liberty, or the contrary, as belonging to the _very will itself_, is not
to speak good sense; for the _will itself_, is not an agent that has _a
will_. The power of choosing itself, has not a power of choosing. That
which has the power of volition is the man, or the soul, and not the
power of volition itself. And he that has the liberty, is the agent who
is possessed of the will; and not the will which he is possessed of."
(p. 38.)
Liberty is the attribute of the agent, because the agent is the
spiritual essence or being who is the subject of the power or capacity
of choice, and his liberty consists as we have seen in the unimpeded
connexion between the volitions produced in him and the objects of those
volitions. Hence, _free will_ is an objectionable phrase. _Free agent_
is the proper phrase, that is, an agent having the power of choice and
whose choice reaches effects.
_Moral Agent._
"A _moral agent_ is a being that is capable of those actions that have a
_moral_ quality, and which can properly be denominated good or evil in a
moral sense, virtuous or vicious, commendable or faulty." (p. 39.)
In what lies the capability of actions having a moral quality?
"To moral agency belongs a _moral faculty_, or sense of moral good and
evil, or of such a thing as desert or worthiness, of praise or blame,
reward or punishment; and a capacity which an agent has of being
influenced in his actions by moral inducements or motives, exhibited to
the view of the understanding or reason, to engage to a conduct
agreeable to moral faculty." (p. 40.)
A moral agent is a being who can perform moral actions, or actions which
are subject to praise or blame. Now the same action may be committed by
a man or by a brute--and the man alone will be guilty: why is the man
guilty? Because he has a moral sense or perception by which he
distinguishes right and wrong: the brute has no such sense or
perception. The man having thus the power of perceiving the right and
wrong of actions--actions and their moral qualities may be so correlated
to him as to produce the sense of the most agreeable or choice. Or, we
may say generally, moral agency consists in the possession of a reason
and conscience to distinguish right and wrong, and the capacity of
having the right and wrong so correlated to the mind as to form motives
and produce volitions. We might define a man of taste in the fine arts
in a similar way; thus,--a man of taste is an agent who has the power of
distinguishing beauty and ugliness, and whose mind is so correlated to
beauty that the sense of the most agreeable or choice is produced. The
only difference between the two cases is this: that, in the latter, the
sense of the most agreeable is always produced by the beauty perceived;
while in the former, the right perceived does not always produce this
sense; on the contrary, the sense of the most agreeable is often
produced by the wrong, in opposition to the decisions of reason and
conscience.
I have now completed the statement of Edwards's system, nearly in his
own words, as contained in part I. of his work. The remarks and
explanations which have been thrown in, I hope will serve to make him
more perfectly understood. This end will be still more fully attained by
presenting on the basis of the foregoing investigation and statement, a
compend of his psychological system, independently of the order there
pursued, and without largely introducing quotations, which have already
been abundantly made.
COMPEND OF EDWARDS'S PSYCHOLOGICAL SYSTEM.
I. There are two cardinal faculties of the mind. 1. The
intellectual--called reason or understanding. 2. The active and
feeling--called will or affections.
II. The relation of these to each other. The first precedes the second
in the order of exercise. The first perceives and knows objects in their
qualities, circumstances, and relations. The second experiences emotions
and passions, or desires and choices, in relation to the objects
perceived.
III. Perception is necessary. When the understanding and its objects are
brought together, perception takes place according to the constituted
laws of the intelligence.
IV. The acts of will or the affections are necessary. When this faculty
of our being and its objects are brought together, volition or choice,
emotions, passions, or desires take place, according to the constituted
nature and laws of this faculty.
The objects and this faculty are correlates. In relation to the object,
we may call this faculty subject. When subject and object are suited to
each other, that is, are agreeable, affections are produced which we
call pleasant; when they are not suited, that is, are disagreeable,
affections take place which are unpleasant or painful. Every object in
relation to subject, is agreeable or disagreeable, and produces
accordingly, in general, affections pleasant or painful.
In the perfection and harmony of our being, this correspondence is
universal; that is, what is known to be agreeable is felt to be
pleasant;--what is known to be disagreeable is felt to be painful. But,
in the corruption of our being, this is reversed in respect of moral
objects. Although what is right is known to be agreeable, that is,
suited to us, it is felt to be painful. But the wrong which is known to
be unsuited, is felt to be pleasant. It must be remarked here, that
pleasant and agreeable, are used by Edwards and others, as synonymous
terms. The distinction I have here made is at least convenient in
describing the same objects as presented to the understanding and to the
will.
V. The emotions and passions, volitions or choices, are thus produced in
the correlation of subject, that is the will, and the object. In
assigning the causes of these affections, we may refer to the nature of
the will, which is such, as to receive such and such affections when in
the presence of such and such objects: or, we may refer to the objects,
and say their nature and circumstances are such as to produce such and
such affections in the will: or, we may refer to both at once, and say
that the affections arise from the state of the mind, and from the
nature and circumstances of the object.
VI. The affections of the will stand connected with changes or effects
in other parts of our being, as stated antecedents. First, they stand
thus connected with muscular action,--as walking, talking, striking,
resisting, &c. Secondly, they stand thus connected with mental
operations,--as fixing the attention upon any subject of thought and
investigation, or upon any imagination, or any idea of the memory.
VII. The affections of the will, when thus connected with effects in
other parts of our being, have a peculiar and striking characteristic.
It is this: that the effect contemplated takes place at the moment it
appears the most agreeable,--the greatest apparent good; which, as
Edwards uses these phrases, means, that at the moment the effect
contemplated produces the most pleasant affection,--the most intense
sense of the agreeable,--it takes place. Thus, when walking seems most
pleasant, we walk; when talking, we talk; when thinking on a particular
subject, then we think on that subject. Such is the constitution and law
of our being. The play of the different parts is reciprocal. Perception
must bring up the objects, and the affections of will immediately
follow. The most agreeable are dwelt upon by the mind, and perception
again takes place particularly with regard to these; and according as
objects affect the will, do all the activities of our being come forth.
VIII. Various terms and phrases in common use can be easily explained by
this system:--_Choice_ is the sense or the affection of the most
pleasant and agreeable. _Preference_ is its synonyme, with scarcely a
shade of difference. They both have respect to the _act of selection_.
_Volition_ is another name for this affection of will, and is used more
particularly in relation to effects or changes following the affection.
_Desire_ is a nascent choice. The strongest desire, at a given moment,
is choice. _Emotion_ is an affection, pleasant or painful, according to
the quality of the object, but not ripened into desire. It is the first
sudden affection arising from an object presented; and with respect to
certain objects, it expresses all the enjoyment possible in relation to
them,--for example, the emotion of sublimity, produced by an object
which can hold no other relation to us. But then the sublimity of the
object may be the motive which causes the choice of gazing at it; that
is, it connects this act of contemplation with the sense of the most
agreeable.
_Passion_ is emotion accompanied by desire in reference to other
relations with the object. Thus the emotion of beauty awakened by a
flower may be accompanied by the desire of possessing it; and if this
desire becomes the strongest desire at the moment, then the passion has
the characteristic which makes it choice, and some corresponding effects
take place in order to possess it,--as walking towards it, stretching
out the hand, &c.
_The determination of will_ is the production or causation of choice. It
is used in reference to the immediate and particular choice, in
opposition to all other choices.
_The will itself_ is the capacity of being affected by objects with
emotion, passion, and desire,--and with that form of passion which we
call the sense of the most agreeable or choice, and which is connected
with effects or consequents as their stated antecedent.
_The motive_ is the cause of choice, and is complex. It lies in the
nature and susceptibilities of the will, and in the nature and
circumstances Of the object chosen.
IX. The will and reason may be opposed; that is, what reason commands
may seem disagreeable to the will, and of course reason cannot be
obeyed. Reason can be obeyed only when her commands produce the sense of
the most agreeable.
X. The terms necessity, and freedom or liberty are opposed in reference
to will. Freedom or liberty is the attribute of the man--the human soul.
The man is free when his volitions or choices are unimpeded,--when, upon
choosing to walk, he walks, &c. The man is not free, or is under
necessity, when his volitions or choices are impeded,--when, upon
choosing to walk, he finds his legs bound or paralysed, &c. Then it is
_impossible_ for him to walk,--then he has _no liberty_ to walk,--then
he is under a _necessity_ of remaining in one place.
Necessity in any other use is _metaphysical_ or _philosophical_
necessity, and is applied out of the sphere of the will: as the
necessity of truth, the necessity of being,--the necessary connexion of
cause and effect. Hence,
The _connexion_ between volitions or choices, or the sense of the most
agreeable with the motive or cause, is _necessary_ with a philosophical
necessity. The necessity of volitions in reference to motives is also
called _moral_ necessity. This term _moral_ is given, not in reference
to the nature of the connexion, but in reference to the _terms_
connected. Volitions belonging to responsible and moral beings are thus
distinguished from those phenomena which we commonly call _natural_.
XI. An agent is that which produces effects. A _natural_ agent is that
which produces effects without volition. A _moral_ agent is one
producing effects by volitions, accompanied with an intellectual
perception of the volitions and their effects, as right or wrong, and a
sense of desert, or of praiseworthiness, or blameworthiness, on account
of the volitions and their effects.
_Brutes_ or irresponsible beings are agents that have volitions, but
have no reason to perceive right and wrong, and consequently have no
sense of desert; and as they cannot perceive right and wrong, they
cannot be made the subjects of moral appeals and inducements.
XII. Moral responsibility arises first, from the possession of reason;
secondly, from the capacity of choice; thirdly, from natural ability.
Natural ability exists when the effect or act commanded to be
accomplished has an established connexion with volition or choice. Thus
we say a man has natural ability to walk, because if he chooses to walk,
he walks. Natural ability differs from freedom only in this:--The first
refers to an established connexion between volitions and effects. The
second refers to an absence of all impediment, or of all resisting
forces from between volitions and effects.
Hence a man is _naturally unable_ to do anything when there is no
established connexion between volition and that thing. A man is
naturally unable to push a mountain from its seat. He has no _liberty_
to move his arm when it is bound.
_Moral inability_ is metaphysical or philosophical inability.
Philosophical inability in general refers to the impossibility of a
certain effect for the want of a cause, or an adequate cause. Thus there
is a philosophical inability of transmuting metal; or of restoring the
decay of old age to the freshness and vigour of youth, because we have
no cause by which such effects can be produced. There is a philosophical
inability also, to pry up a rock of a hundred tons weight with a pine
lath, and by the hand of a single man, because we have not an adequate
cause. _Moral inability_ relates to the connexion between motives and
volitions in distinction from natural ability, which relates to the
connexion between volitions and actions consequent upon them: but the
term moral as we have seen, does not characterize the nature of the
_connexion_,--it only expresses the _quality_ of _terms connected_.
Hence _moral_ inability, as philosophical inability, is the
impossibility of a certain volition or choice for the want of a motive
or cause, or an adequate motive. Thus there is a moral philosophical
inability of Paul denying Jesus Christ, for there is plainly no motive
or cause to produce a volition to such an act. There is a moral
philosophical inability also, of a man selling an estate for fifty
dollars which is worth fifty thousand, because the motive is not
adequate to produce a volition to such an act.
Philosophical necessity and inability are absolute in respect of us,
because beyond the sphere of our volition.
XIII. Praiseworthiness or virtue, blameworthiness or guilt, apply only
to volitions. This indeed is not formally brought out in the part of
Edwards's work we have been examining. His discussion of it will be
found in part IV. sec. I. But as it is necessary to a complete view of
his system, we introduce it here.
He remarks in this part, "If the essence of virtuousness or
commendableness, and of viciousness or fault, does not lie in the nature
of the disposition or acts of the mind, which are said to be our virtue
or our fault, but in their cause, then it is certain it lies no where at
all. Thus, for instance, if the vice of a vicious act of will lies not
in the nature of the act, but in the cause, so that its being of a bad
nature will not make it at all our fault, unless it arises from some
faulty determination of ours as its cause, or something in us that is
our fault, &c." (page 190.) "Disposition of mind," or inclination,
--"acts of the mind," "acts of will," here obviously mean
the same thing; that is, they mean volition or choice, and are
distinguished from their cause or motive. The question is not whether
the cause or motive be pure or impure, but whether our virtuousness or
viciousness lie in the cause of our volition, or in the volition itself.
It plainly results from Edwards's psychology, and he has himself in the
above quotation stated it, that virtuousness or viciousness lie in the
volition itself. The characteristic of our personality or agency is
volition. It is in and by our volitions that we are conscious of doing
or forbearing to do, and therefore it is in respect of our volitions
that we receive praise for well-doing, or blame for evil-doing. If these
volitions are in accordance with conscience and the law of God, they are
right; if not, they are wrong, and we are judged accordingly. The
_metaphysical_ questions, how the volition was produced, and what is the
character of the cause, is the cause praiseworthy or blameworthy, are
questions which transcend the sphere of our volitions, our actions, our
personality, our responsibility. We are concerned only with this:--Do
_we_ do right? do _we_ do wrong? What is the _nature of our volitions?_