Some person might try to establish a distinction founded on the fact
that the animal and the soul do not act unconsciously. If they know
it by mere sensation, how far does that sensation contribute to the
freedom of will? For sensation, limiting itself to perception, does not
yield the percipient mastery over anything.[179] If they know it by
knowledge, and if this knowledge contain only the accomplished fact,
their actions are then determined by some other principle. If, even
independently of desire, reason or knowledge make us perform certain
actions, or dominate us,[180] to what faculty shall the action be
ascribed, and how does it occur? If reason produce another desire, how
does it do so? If reason manifest itself and liberate us by the process
of calming our desires, the free will lies no longer in the action, but
in intelligence; for every action, however much directed by reason,
would then be something mixed, not revealing an unconfused free will.