V - From Remarks Upon a Book

Summary

[Editor's Note: The author Clarke criticized was Anthony Collins (1676–1729), a free-thinker leaning toward materialism who was greatly influenced by Locke. Collins' book, which denied freedom of the will, was published in 1716, Clarke's review, which contains a very clear exposition of his theory of agent causation, a year later. This selection should be read in conjunction with supplementary text iv. For ease of reading, I have eliminated Clarke's copious page references to Collins' book. The text is from Wiv, 721–5.]

In a book lately published, entitled A Philosophical Enquiry Concerning Human Liberty, the author [Anthony Collins] proposes six distinct arguments to prove that there neither is nor can be any liberty in human actions. The arguments he offers, have, I think, been already in great measure obviated in the papers which lately passed between me and the learned Mr. Leibniz. Yet, because some of them seem to be placed in such a light as may possibly deceive unwary persons whose thoughts have not been much conversant upon so nice a subject, I thought it not improper to set down particularly such brief remarks as might be sufficient to lay open to an intelligent reader the fallacy of the whole book.