He doubts whether the mind may not have within itself the adequate cause of its own acts; whether indeed it have not a self-determining power, "for the power in question involves the idea of originating volition.
The intelligent Will, or the self-determining Power?
I am well aware of the objections that will be made to this statement, and especially the demonstrated incomprehensibleness of a self-determining power.
A self-determining power of will is a supposed power, which will has to determine its own volitions.
There is no self-determining power of will, and of course no liberty consisting in a self-determining power.
There is no work of higher authority among those who deny the self-determining power of the will; and none which on this subject has called forth more general admiration for acuteness of thought and logical subtlety.
If Edwards makes mind the efficient cause of volition, what becomes of his famous argument against the self-determining power, by which he reduces it to the absurdity of an infinite series of volitions?
But the scheme of the motive-determining power, does not necessarily arise out of the ruins of the self-determining power; it is only to the imagination that it appears to do so.
The objection which he urges against the self-determining power, is founded on this idea of a cause.
The second condition of moral government is the existence, in the subject, of free self-determining power: the agent must be the real cause and the sole cause of his own actions; he must have freedom both to and from the act.
But these sentiments are irrational and absurd if man is a mere machine impelled by natural causes, and has no self-determining power.
The above list will hopefully provide you with a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "determining power" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this group of words.
