A Hypothesis about the History of the Concept of Voluntariness
In Aristotelian physics, natural objects are characterized by their teleology, i.e. their tending toward certain ends. According to St. Thomas, what makes an event a voluntary action is that the subject of the event has knowledge of the end toward which the action is directed. Post-Galileo, physics is not about teleology in this way. Instead, physics is about laws, rules according to which events unfold. Accordingly, many early modern philosophers hold that a voluntary action is an event which unfolds according to a rule which has been adopted by the subject of the event. The clearest statement of this idea...
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Topic(s):
Action Theory
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G. W. Leibniz
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Galileo Galilei
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George Berkeley
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Historical Thinkers
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Immanuel Kant
,
Laws of Nature
,
Metaphysics
,
Nicolas Malebranche
,
Philosophy
,
Samuel Clarke
,
Thomas Aquinas
,
Thomas Reid
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Lawless Events and the Existence of God
Christine Overall famously argued that miracles, conceived as violations of the laws of nature, would be evidence against the existence of the traditional God. A lengthy debate with Robert Larmer ensued, in which Larmer argued that only slight modifications to the law-breaking account of miracles are necessary in order for miracles to serve as evidence for, rather than against, the existence of God. Larmer tries to argue that miracles do not violate the laws of nature, but nevertheless holds that they are different from ordinary events in that they don't follow from the laws of nature. (I don't have Larmer's...
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