The Hegemonic in the Soul
Critiques of Voluntarism and Intellectualism in Cudworth’s Philosophy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35305/cf2.vi21.259Keywords:
Free will, Cudworth, Human soulAbstract
In this article I study the criticisms that Ralph Cudworth (1617-1688), a seventeenth century Cambridge Platonist, makes of scholastic psychology in his posthumous work Treatise of Freewill (1838). The Englishman gives an account of some views according to which a total separation of the faculties in the soul is necessary in order to give a definition of free will, view that he regards as scholastic. And he presents his criticisms, that point to this lack of unity, which is why the separation becomes a paradox or a vicious circle. Given these problems, he offers his proposal for the human soul, according to which our first motivation is produced by a desire for good and happiness. The soul finds in the hegemonic, or power of free will, that which unifies the various energies in the soul, and thus the locus of freedom, since it is the self-determination of the soul. In this way, his proposal is presented as overcoming the problems of voluntarism and intellectualism.
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