Some quick distinctions regarding freedom and the will
Recently in our catechism class, someone asked questions about how the Church understands free will. I thought it might be helpful to write up a few comments.
The phrase ‘free will’ is redundant. To have a will at all is to be able to deliberate among possibilities and then choose one. This ability implies intelligence (to be able to deliberate), and thus a certain degree of rationality. If one can deliberate, then the choice is not determined by instinct or nature. So if one has a will, it must be free in this sense.
Philosophical viewpoints that deny ‘free will’ also deny human agency and humanity itself. If what seem to be ‘our’ decisions are really just byproducts of physical processes, then we aren’t ‘rational animals.’ If what seem to be ‘our’ decisions are actually just God’s actions through us, then we aren’t made in the image of God (Who has agency). Those are intellectually coherent views, but they deny what has traditionally been understood as what makes us distinctively human--reasoning and agency.
The will is a power to choose the good. The reason we choose something over something else is that in some sense we think it better than the alternatives. So we always choose the good as we perceive it at the moment of choice. This isn’t to say that what we choose actually is good, but that we choose what we choose because we perceive it to be good at the moment. The goal of our deliberation ought to be to determine what is actually the good.
The will is not a power to choose between good or evil. This follows from the above. The ability to choose a lesser good rather than a greater good is still an ability to choose the good; it’s just combined with an ability to be mistaken about which thing is better, which often follows from our ability to focus on certain features of a thing and ignore others. But God and the holy angels have wills, and are not able to choose evil (to sin), so it can’t be the case that to have a will (or ‘free’ will) is to be able to choose evil as well as good.
What we call ‘willpower’ is what we used to call the virtue of fortitude. By willpower, we usually mean the ability to be firm in our decisions, particularly in our decisions to do difficult actions or actions that involve suffering. (We don’t usually say that it takes willpower to do what’s pleasant and comfortable.) Just because we make one decision doesn’t mean that we’re done; in most cases we’ll have multiple opportunities to change our minds. To remain firm in our decisions when the costs--the pain and suffering--become more present to us is what traditionally was called courage or fortitude. It’s the ability to govern our fear according to our reason, so that we continue to make the right choices in the face of difficulties.
Our freedom as rational beings comes from being able to choose what we know to be good despite the costs to ourselves. Catechism n. 1733: “The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to ‘the slavery of sin’ (Cf. Rom 6:17).”
Our true freedom, i.e., our ability to give our lives for those we love (cf. John 15:13), is a gift of the Holy Spirit. The freedom to do what Jesus commands us to do, to follow Him to the Cross, comes from supernatural courage that follows from presence of the Holy Spirit in our souls. The faith to believe in Jesus’ person and teaching combined with the gift of wisdom and understanding regarding those allows us to know our true good. The gift of hope to believe in Jesus’ promises about the life to come combined with the courage that follows upon the promise of immortality allows us to not worry overmuch about suffering and death in this life. The gift of charity (agape), in which we love God more than we love ourselves and love those whom God loves more than ourselves frees us from any other attachment that can be used to manipulate us.
There’s obviously more than can be said, but I think these points help sketch some key elements of Catholic moral doctrine which are at odds with several Protestant and secular views about freedom and the will.
