Reid's corrections on Leibniz's notion of action: the problem of freedom

• Grant number: 18/12486-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: September 17, 2018
• End date: March 16, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Tessa Moura Lacerda
• Grantee: Leandro Holanda Araujo
• Supervisor: Maria Alvarez
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: King's College London, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 16/20766-6 - Philosophy as the dissolution of scepticism, BP.MS

Abstract

The subtitle of this research proposal, "The Problem of Freedom", could be renamed "the problem of free agency" due to the deep connexion between the notion of freedom and of acting freely. By the way, for being somewhat underexplored, the action is appointed by Thomas Reid as the most problematic concept in Leibniz's account of freedom. When Leibniz had written his Theodicy his intention was defending that the reason would have enough strength to wrestle with scepticism. This struggle would be to show the reason could dissolve issues faced by Christianity, those which also name the subtitle of Leibniz's Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil. My current research funded by FAPESP aims at explaining, as a key point, how it is possible to defend the human free agency if everything in our world is completely determined by a sufficient reason, for Bayle this explanation is impossible. Taking Leibniz side, Reid agrees with the major structure of Leibniz's account (against Bayle) of the human freedom: there is unity, changes are determined in it and come from free agency. However, the problem, according to Reid, is that for somewhat underexploring the notion of action, Leibniz does not give a full demonstration of its real weight. This demonstration would be essential to testify how acting freely is possible as a unity that does not change but rather is the source of changes. So my goal is to explain the main points of Reid's critique in order to rethink and advance, as much as possible, in questions about human freedom; and answer such questions are crucial for the dissolution of scepticism by means of philosophy, which is, by the way, the subject of my research funded by FAPESP. (AU)