Notes on Mental & Moral Philosophy (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1865 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XI. On Free Will. On HtrarAir Liberty. Human Liberty limited.--Phenomena which accompany Free Will.--1. Recognition by the mind of its own power. 2. Deliberation. 3. Determination. 4. An act of power.--States when this liberty is circumscribed.--Infancy.--Sleep.--Faintings.--Madness.--Passion.--Drunkenness.--Proofs of the freedom of our Will in the sense defined.--Influences which operate on human actions, --1. The emotions considered under the heads of Passions, Desires, Affections.--Passions-primitive, non-primitive.--Human instinct.--How distinguished from that of animals.--2. Principle of Selfinterest.--3. The Conscience.--Argument in favour of a Moral Faculty.--Views of Mr. Bain as to the origin of conscience discussed. THE liberty of man, as we have had occasion to remark, is limited in its nature; we can trace its commencement in the mind, and observe the intermissions and weaknesses to which it is subject. We can analyse the phenomena which accompany the will, and find that the following succeed each other in an invariable order. 1. The first is the recognition by the mind of its power. Before the will operates and secures its freedom, the mind is the mere instrument of the understanding, and must submit to all the varied impressions resulting from the play of the intellectual faculties. Its first step when free is, as it were, to take possession and assert its own inalienable rights. 2. The second is deliberation, a complex process, calling into play most of our mental powers. The mind examines the various means and ends, and submits them to the scrutiny of reason, which groups and arranges them so as to be ready for the mental judgment. 3. To deliberation succeeds determination, or a choice from the materials presented to it. 4. An act of ..