me a sense intermediate between those which we assign,
as a rule, to the two terms ‘Liberty’ and
‘Free Will.’ On one hand I believe
that ‘Liberty’ consists in being entirely
oneself, in acting in conformity with oneself; it
is then to a certain degree the ‘moral liberty’
of philosophers, the independence of the person with
regard to everything other than itself. But that
is not quite this Liberty, since the independence
I am describing has not always a moral character.
Further, it does not consist in depending on oneself
as an effect depends on the cause which, of necessity,
determines it. In this, I should come back to
the sense of ‘Free Will.’” And yet,
he continues, “I do not accept this sense either,
since Free Will, in the usual meaning of the term,
implies the equal possibility of two contraries, and,
on my theory, we cannot formulate or even conceive,
in this case, the thesis of the equal possibility
of the two contraries, without falling into grave
error about the nature of Time. The object of
my thesis has been precisely to find a position intermediate
between ’moral Liberty’ and ‘Free
Will.’ Liberty, such as I understand it,
is situated between these two terms, but not at equal
distances from both; if I were obliged to blend it
with one of the two, I should select ‘Free-Will.’”
Nor is Liberty to be reduced to spontaneity. “At
most, this would be the case in the animal world where
the psychological life is principally that of the
affections. But in the case of a man, a thinking
being, the free act can be called a synthesis of feelings
and ideas, and the evolution which leads to it, a
reasonable evolution.” [Footnote: Matter
and Memory, p. 243 (Fr. p. 205).] “In a word,
if it is agreed to call every act free, which springs
from the self, and from the self alone, the act which
bears the mark of our personality is truly free, for
our self alone will lay claim to its paternity.”
[Footnote: Time and Free Will, p. 172 (Fr. p.
132). It is interesting to compare with this the
remark by Nietzsche in Also sprach Zarathustra, Thus
Spake Zarathustra,—“Let your Ego
be in relation to your acts that which the mother
is in relation to the child.”] The secret of
the solution lies surely here, and in the words given
above: “Liberty consists in being entirely
oneself.” If we act rightly we shall act
freely, and yet be determined. Yet here there
will be no contradiction, for we shall be self-determined.
It is only the man who is self-determined that can
in any sense be said to know the meaning of “human”
Freedom. “We call free,” said Spinoza,
“that which exists in virtue of the necessities
of its own nature, and which is determined by itself
alone.” Liberty is not absolute, for then
we ourselves would be at the beck and call of every
external excitation, desire, passion, or temptation.
Our salvation consists in self-determination, so we
shall avoid licence but preserve Freedom. We
can only repeat the Socratic maxim—“Know
thyself”—and resolve to take to heart
the appeal of our own Shakespeare: