“ Man is therefore free to act, and as such he is animated by an immaterial substance ”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, or On Education (1762). copy citation
Author | Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
---|---|
Source | Emile, or On Education |
Topic | acts |
Date | 1762 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translated by Barbara Foxley |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5427/pg5427-images.html |
Context
“To suppose some action which is not the effect of an active motive power is indeed to suppose effects without cause, to reason in a vicious circle. Either there is no original impulse, or every original impulse has no antecedent cause, and there is no will properly so-called without freedom. Man is therefore free to act, and as such he is animated by an immaterial substance; that is the third article of my creed. From these three you will easily deduce the rest, so that I need not enumerate them.
If man is at once active and free, he acts of his own accord; what he does freely is no part of the system marked out by Providence and it cannot be imputed to Providence.”
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