Incorrect Use of the Term Cause.—It is common, with a certain class of writers, to speak of motive as the cause of action or volition. This is, if at all correct and allowable, certainly not a fortunate use of terms. The agent is properly the cause of any act, and in volition the soul itself is the agent. It is the mind itself, which is, strictly, the efficient cause of its own acts. The motive is the reason why I act, and not the producer or cause of my act. In common speech, this distinction is not always observed. We say, I do such a thing because of this or that, meaning for such and such reasons. In philosophical discussion it is necessary to be more exact.
Liable to be misunderstood.—The use of the word, as now referred to, is particularly to be avoided as liable to mislead the incautious reader or hearer. It suggests the idea of physical necessity, of irresistibility. Given, the law of gravitation, e. g., and a body unsupported must fall—no choice, no volition; whereas, the action of the mind in volition is, by its essential nature, voluntary, directly opposed to the idea of compulsion. Those who use the word in this manner are generally careful to disclaim, it is true, any such sense; but such are our associations with the word cause, as ordinarily employed, that it is difficult to avoid sliding, unawares, into the old and familiar idea of some sort of absolute physical necessity. It were better to say, therefore, that motives are the reasons why we act thus and thus. To go further than this, to call the motive the cause of the volition, is neither a correct nor a fortunate use of terms, since the idea is thereby conveyed, guard against it as you will, that, in some way, the influence was irresistible, the event unavoidable.
The Phrase "moral Necessity."—The same objections lie with still greater force against the phrase moral necessity as applied to this subject. Those who use it are careful, for the most part, to define their meaning, to explain that they do not mean necessity at all, but only the certainty of actions. The word itself, however, is constantly contradicting all such explanations, constantly suggesting another and much stronger meaning. That is necessary, properly speaking, which depends not on my will or pleasure, which cannot be avoided, but must be, and must be as it is. Now, to say of an act of the will, that it is necessary, in this sense, is little short of a contradiction in terms. The two ideas are utterly incongruous and incompatible.
A volition may be certain to take place; it may be the motive that makes it certain, but if this is all we mean, it is better to say just this, and no more. If this is all we mean, then we do not mean that volitions are necessary in any proper sense of that term. There is no need to use the word necessity, and then explain that we do not mean necessity, but only certainty. It is precisely on this unfortunate use of terms that the strongest objections are founded, against the true doctrine of the connection of motive with volition. Even Mill, one of the ablest modern necessitarians, objects to the use of this term, and urges its abandonment.
The true Connection.—What, then, is the connection between Motive and Volition?—I have all along admitted, that there is such a connection between volitions and motives, that the former never occur without the latter, that they stand related as antecedent and consequent, and that motives, while not the producing cause of volitions, are still the reason why the volitions are as they are, and not otherwise. They furnish the occasion of their existence, and the explanation of their character. So much as this, the psychology of the subject warrants—more than this it does not allow. More than this we seem to assert, however, when we insist on saying that motive is the cause, and volition the effect. We seem, however we may disclaim such intention, to make the mind a mere mechanical instrument, putting forth volitions only as it is impelled by motives, these, and not the mind, being the real producing cause, and the volitions following irresistibly, just as the knife or chisel is but the passive instrument in the hand of the architect, and not at all the producing cause of the effects which follow.
Difference of the two Cases.—Now there is a vast difference between these two cases. The impulse, communicated to the saw, produces the effect irresistibly; not so the motive. The saw is a passive instrument; not so the mind. There is, in either case, a fixed connection between the antecedent and the consequent, but the nature of the connection is widely different, and it is a difference of the greatest moment. It is precisely the difference indicated by the two words cause and reason—as applied to account for a given occurrence—the one applicable to material and mechanical powers and processes, the other to intelligent, rational, voluntary agents. There is a cause why the apple falls. It is gravitation. There is a reason why mind acts and wills as it does. It is motive.
But IS the Mind the producing Cause of its own Volitions?—This, the advocates of moral necessity deny. "If we should thus cause a volition," says Dr. Edwards, "we should doubtless cause it by a causal act. It is impossible that we cause any thing without a causal act. And as it is supposed that we cause it freely, the causal act must be a free act, i. e., an act of the will, or volition. And as the supposition is, that all our volitions are caused by ourselves, the causal act must be caused by another, and so on infinitely, which is both impossible and inconceivable." That is, if the mind causes its own volitions, it can do it only by first acting to cause them, and that causative act is, itself, a volition, and requires another causative act to produce it, and so on ad infinitum.
The Dictum Necessitatis proves too much.—This celebrated argument has been called, not inappositely, the dictum necessitatis. It rests upon the assumption, that no cause can act, but by first acting to produce that act. Now this virtually shuts out all cause from the universe, or else involves us in the infinite series. Apply this reasoning to any cause whatever, and see if it be not so. Suppose, e. g., that motive, and not the mind itself, is the producing cause of volition. Then, according to the dictum, motive cannot act, but by first acting in order to act, and for that previous causative act, there must have been an ulterior cause, and so on forever, in an endless succession of previous causative acts.
The Dictum as applicable to Mind.—But it may be said this dictum applies only to mind, or voluntary action. How, then, is it known, that mind cannot act without first acting in order to act? Would not this virtually shut out and extinguish all mental action? The mind thinks; must it first think, in order to think? It reasons, judges, conceives, imagines; must it first reason, judge, etc., in order to reason, and judge, and conceive, and imagine? If not, then why may it not will without first willing to will?