Note 199 — ON THE WILL IN NATURE. [190]

By this Schopenhauer means the distinction between the will in its widest sense, regarded as the fundamental essence of all that happens,—even where there is no choice, even where it is unconscious,—and conscious will, implying deliberation and choice, commonly called free-will. We must however carefully guard against confounding this relative free-will, with absolute free-will (liberum arbitrium indifferentiæ), which Schopenhauer declares to be inadmissible. The sense in which I have used the expression 'free-will' throughout this treatise, is that of relative freedom, i.e. power to choose between different motives, free of all outward restraint (Willkühr). (Tr.)