Routledge History of Philosophy Volume III by Marenbon John;

Author:Marenbon, John;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 179185
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

A similar kind of argument constitutes the third objection to Ia, 83, 1:

What is free is cause of itself, as the Philosopher says (Metaphysics I.2). Therefore what is moved by another is not free. But God moves the will, for it is written (Prov. 21: 1): The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord; whithersoever He will He shall turn it, and (Phil. 2: 13): It is God Who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish. Therefore people do not have free-will.

Yet Aquinas insists that the reality of providence (which means the reality of God working in all things as first cause and sustainer) is not incompatible with human freedom.

To begin with, he says, people certainly have freedom. For one thing, the Bible holds that they do (in Ia, 83, 1 Aquinas cites Ecclesiasticus 15: 14 to this effect). For another, people, as rational agents, have it in them to choose between alternative courses of action (unlike inanimate objects or animals acting by instinct).46 They also have it in them to act or refrain from acting. In fact, says Aquinas, human freedom is a prerequisite of moral thinking.

If there is nothing free in us, but the change which we desire comes about of necessity, then we lose deliberation, exhortation, command and punishment, and praise and blame, which are what moral philosophy is based on.

(On Power, VI; Summa theologiae, Ia, 83, 1)

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