Philo of Alexandria on will, free-will, and self-determined will

Philo: from THE UNCHANGEABLENESS OF GOD 45–48

“… In all these ways living creatures excel plants. Let us now see where man has been made superior to other animals. We find that the special prerogative he has received is mind, habituated to apprehend the natures both of all material objects and of things in general. For as sight holds the lead in place in the body, and the quality of light holds the leading place in the universe, so too in us the dominant element is the mind. For mind is the sight of the soul, illuminated by rays peculiar to itself, whereby the vast and profound darkness, poured upon it by ignorance of things, is dispersed. This branch of the soul was not formed of the same elements, out of which the other branches were brought to completion, but it was allotted something better and purer, the substance in fact out of which divine natures were wrought. And therefore it is reasonably held that the mind alone in all that makes us what we are is indestructible. For it is mind alone which the Father who begat it judged worthy of freedom, and loosening the fetters of necessity, suffered it to range as it listed, and of that free-will which is His most peculiar possession and most worthy of His majesty gave it such portion as it was capable of receiving. For the other living creatures in whose souls the mind, the element set apart for liberty, has no place, have been committed under yoke and bridle to the service of men, as slaves to a master. But man, possessed of a spontaneous and self-determined will, whose activities for the most part rest on deliberate choice, is with reason blamed for what he does wrong with intent, praised when he acts rightly of his own will. In the others, the plants and animals, no praise is due if they bear well, nor blame if they fare ill: for their movements and changes in either direction come to them from no deliberate choice or volition of their own. But the soul of man alone has received from God the faculty of voluntary movement, and in this way especially is made like to Him, and thus being liberated, as far as might be, from that hard and ruthless mistress, necessity, may justly be charged with guilt, in that it does not honor its Liberator. And therefore it will rightly pay the inexorable penalty which is meted to ungrateful freedmen.”

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A few words about Philo’s thinking on the subject of the will, which was strongly influenced by Stoic philosophy. There is plenty in Philo’s writing that is not Stoic but his ethics, like the ethics of the Stoics, is based on a particular concept of the will. With Philo, as with Epictetus, human free-will (choice) rests on, or emanates from, the spark of rationality that God gave to humans. The spark of rationality in the human constitution is essential for a key aspect of the will, ie choice, to exist at all. That view of the human constitution ties together Stoic ethics and metaphysics with Stoic psychology.

The above quote from Philo seems very close to statements made by Epictetus on the same subject, although Philo died before Epictetus was born. But here is also enough difference from other Stoic sources to give an interestingly different perspective on the will.