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Will This word names a human faculty, appetitive in character. As our intellect is a cognitive power, so our will is an appetitive power. For those who think of will power as a faculty that is sensitive in character, and is possessed by the higher mammals as well as by human beings, it is necessary to correct their view of will by saying, philosophically that will is an intellectual appetite and, as such, is immaterial just as the intellect is immaterial. The freedom of the will is a freedom of choice. It consists in our being able to choose otherwise, no matter how we do choose.
Adapted from Adler's Philosophical Dictionary (1995) and Great Ideas from the Great Books (1963) by Mortimer J. Adler
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