ENGLISH

A Free Will: Origins of the Notion in Ancient Thought

By A. A. Long , David Sedley , Michael Frede

Book information

Publisher
University of California Press
Year
2011
ISBN
0520268482, 9780520268487
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
3 MB (3370487 bytes)
Series
Sather Classical Lectures, Vol. 68
Edition
1
Pages
224\223
Time added
2013-12-06 11:06:15

Description

Where does the notion of free will come from? How and when did it develop, and what did that development involve? In Michael Frede's radically new account of the history of this idea, the notion of a free will emerged from powerful assumptions about the relation between divine providence, correctness of individual choice, and self-enslavement due to incorrect choice. Anchoring his discussion in Stoicism, Frede begins with Aristotle--who, he argues, had no notion of a free will--and ends with Augustine. Frede shows that Augustine, far from originating the idea (as is often claimed), derived most of his thinking about it from the Stoicism developed by Epictetus.

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