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John Stuart Mill begins On Liberty by distinguishing free will from freedom per se.
The subject of this Essay is not the so-called Liberty of the Will, so unfortunately opposed to the misnamed doctrine of Philosophical Necessity; but Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual...
They are conceptually distinct; but can we be fully free in the civil/social/political sense without presuming ourselves to possess the power of volition?
The debate has been long-running and hugely vicious. It began in Ancient Greece, was picked up by the Romans, dominated Christian philosophy and rumbles on to this day among philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists... (SoL/BoL, continues)
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Following up on the Incarceration report in #9, here's the "60 Minutes" segment I mentioned...
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