Doctrine of the will / Asa Mahan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mahan, Asa, 1799-1889, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Free will and determinism.

Will.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 233 pages)

Edition:

Third edition.

Other Title:

Doctrine of the will

Place of Publication:

Oberlin, Ohio : J.M. Fitch, 1847.

Summary:

To one whose aim is, to "serve his generation according to the Will of God," but two reasons would seem to justify an individual in claiming the attention of the public in the capacity of an author-the existence in the public mind of a want which needs to be met-and the full belief, that the Work which he has produced is adapted to meet that want. Under the influence of these two considerations, the following Treatise is presented to the public. Whether the author has judged rightly or not, it is not for him to decide. The decision of that question is left with the public, to whom the Work is now presented. It is doubtful, whether any work, prepared with much thought and pains-taking, was ever published with the conviction, on the part of the author, that it was unworthy of public regard. The community, however, may differ from him entirely on the subject; and as a consequence, a work which he regards as so imperiously demanded by the public interest, falls dead from the press. Many an author, thus disappointed, has had occasion to be reminded of the admonition, "Ye have need of patience." Whether the following Treatise shall succeed in gaining the public ear, or not, one consolation will remain with the writer, the publication of the work Has his sense of duty. To his respected Associates in the Institution over which he presides, Associates with whose approbation and counsel the work, was prepared, the Author would take this occasion publicly to express his grateful acknowledgments for the many important suggestions which he received from them, during the progress of its preparation.

Contents:

Introductory observations

Classification of the mental faculties

Liberty and necessity

Extent and limits or the liberty of the will

The greatest apparent good

Connection of the doctrine of liberty with the divine prescience

Bearing of the doctrine of liberty upon the purposes and agency of God in respect to human conduct

Obligation predicable only of the will

The standard by which the moral character of voluntary states of mind, or acts of will, should be determined

Intentions, or moral acts, never of a mixed character; that is, partly right and partly wrong

Relations of the will to the intelligence and sensibility, in states morally right, or wrong

Test of conformity to moral principle

The element of the will in complex phenomena

Influence of the will in intellectual judgments

Liberty and servitude

Liberty and dependence

Formation of character

Concluding reflections.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.