NINTH LECTURE
The second main objection brought against free will springs forth from absolute intellectualism.
According to this objection, free will would be incompatible with the principle of the reason of being, that is with the very principle of reason. The will cannot act without a reason, this reason is seen by the intellect, and the reason which the intellect sees as what is best is necessarily prevalent. Thus the will is necessitated by the intellect, according to what Leibniz called the principle of the best.
Answer: -- It is true that the will cannot act without a reason, and that this reason is seen by the intellect. But as regards the practical judgment, that which the intellect judges to be the best is judged to be the best only by virtue of the actual movement of the will. Thus the will follows a reason which the will itself has made prevalent.
The intellectualists neglect the whole order of the operating subject and its dynamism. They reduce the world to a book of images. The principle of reason requires itself the primacy of the existential exercise over the intellectual specification in the case of human acts, because in this case the reason presented in the object is necessarily and by itself insufficient on the part of every object which is not the Good.
The third objection brought against free will springs forth from empiricist psychology.
This objection emphasizes the fact of the existence of unconscious motivations, and concludes that the reasons we believe to have determined our deeds are posterior to the true motivation, which is unconscious and obeying psychic determinism.
In reality, either unconscious motivations unloose action without a judgment having made awakened in consciousness: in this case there is no act of will, nor freedom.
or the judgment of the intellect is awakened when unconscious motivations enter into play: in this case there is an act of will and there is freedom.
To believe that the only fact of the existence of unconscious motivations opposes free will is to take a question for an answer.