Chapter II. On the Principles of Human Acts

- Three principles of human acts are numbered: 1. cognition, 2. will, 3. liberty. For these are constitutive of them, and therefore required for any act properly human, as is clear from the definition of a human act.

The will necessarily supposes previous cognition; for nothing can be the object of the will unless it has first been apprehended by means of the intellect. Hence the axiom: Nothing willed unless foreknown. But liberty supposes both. For liberty is the faculty of choosing, or of determining oneself to some act; but election cannot be made unless the will moves itself toward this or that foreknown part.

Voluntariety and Free Choice

Within this chapter

Article I. On the Voluntarynn. 4–10
- § I. On the Voluntary in Generalnn. 4–7
- § II. On the Voluntary in Particularnn. 8–10
Article II. On the Freenn. 11–12
Article III. On the Things Opposed to the Voluntary and the Freenn. 13–21
- § I. On Ignorancenn. 13–14
- § II. On Concupiscencenn. 15–16
- § III. On Fearnn. 17–19
- § IV. On Force, or Violencenn. 20–21