MEANING OF THIS PHRASE ACCORDING TO EDWARDS.

The following passage leaves no room for doubt in respect to the meaning which Edwards attaches to the phrase, “the greatest apparent good.” “I have chosen,” he says, “rather to express myself thus, that the Will always is as the greatest apparent good, or as what appears most agreeable, than to say, that the Will is determined by the greatest apparent good, or by what seems most agreeable; because an appearing most agreeable or pleasing to the mind, and the mind’s preferring and choosing, seem hardly to be properly and perfectly distinct.” Here undeniably, the words, choosing, preferring, “appearing most agreeable or pleasing,” and “the greatest apparent good,” are defined as identical in their meaning. Hence in another place, he adds, “If strict propriety of speech be insisted on, it may more properly be said, that the voluntary action which is the immediate consequence and fruit of the mind’s volition and choice, is determined by that which appears most agreeable, than by the preference or choice itself.” The reason is obvious. Appearing most agreeable or pleasing, and preference or choice, had been defined as synonymous in their meaning. To say, therefore, that preference or choice is determined by “what appears most agreeable or pleasing,” would be equivalent to the affirmation, that choice determines choice. “The act of volition itself,” he adds, “is always determined by that in or about the mind’s view of an object, which causes it to appear most agreeable,” or what is by definition the same thing, causes it to be chosen. The phrases, “the greatest apparent good,” and “appearing most agreeable or pleasing to the mind,” and the words, choosing, preferring, &c., are therefore, according to Edwards, identical in their meaning. The proposition, “the Will is always as the greatest apparent good,” really means nothing more nor less than this, that Will always chooses as it chooses. The famous argument based upon this proposition in favor of the doctrine of Necessity may be thus expressed. If the Will always is as the greatest apparent good, that is, if the Will always chooses as it chooses, it is governed by the law of Necessity. The Will is as the greatest apparent good, that is, it always chooses as it chooses. Therefore it is governed by this law. By this very syllogism, multitudes have supposed that the doctrine of Necessity has been established with all the distinctness and force of demonstration.

The question now returns, Is “the Will always as the greatest apparent good,” in either of the senses of the phrase as above defined?