Free will and its opponents. Dr. Gutberlet

Free will and its opponents. Dr. Gutberlet. Translation from German. M. 1906 (“In Defense of the Ideals of Reason” - a selected library of modern Western thinkers - VII). The author is a theist; his work has apologetic purposes. He proceeds from the idea that some truths must be recognized even by representatives of anti-Christian philosophy, and these truths, once recognized, lead to a Christian worldview. As such truths, according to him, the following four can be noted, primarily in front of many others: two epistemological - the reality of the external world and the objective significance of supersensible principles, and two metaphysical - expediency in the world order and the freedom of human will. Whatever, the author says, is the final reason that prompts us to recognize the existence of things outside of us, we can say with complete decisiveness that whoever denies the external world or, at least, considers the question of its existence open, deceives either himself or others. Whoever wants to recognize the law of sufficient reason as having power and significance only in the realm of possible experience obviously only wants to avoid the conclusion from empirical reality to the supermundane Creator. The expedient structure of the world is so obvious that all the objections of representatives of mechanical understanding must be called empty quibbles. Finally, to everyone, his own consciousness directly and unambiguously testifies to the freedom of his will. With these four fundamental principles, theism is inevitably established. But free will, in addition to this high theoretical significance, which it has in common with other fundamental truths, also has a very important practical significance: a person’s moral responsibility for his actions depends on it. These are the motives that prompted the author to protect free will from those objections that are directed against its recognition from the enemies of Christianity. the study consists of seven chapters: what is free will; evidence of free will; moral statistics; freedom and anthropology, freedom and physiological psychology; free will and speculation; free will and mechanical worldview. You might be interested in: