Letter LXII. From Anon. [Van Vlouten] (Abstract)

Correspondence, by Benedict de Spinoza, [1883], at sacred-texts.com

p. 389

LETTER LXI. (LVII.)

* * * * * TO SPINOZA. ¹

[Philosophers often differ through using words in different senses. Thus in the question of free will Descartes means by free, constrained t y no cause. You mean by the same, undetermined in a particular way by a cause. The question of free will is threefold:—I. Have we any power whatever over things external to us? II. Have we absolute power over the intentional movements of our own body? III. Have we free use of our reason? Both Descartes and yourself are right according to the terms employed by each (8th October, 1674).]

Footnotes

389:1 This letter is by Van Vloten, followed by Mr. Pollock, assigned to Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhausen, a Bohemian nobleman. See Introduction, p. xvi. The correspondence with Tschirnhausen was formerly supposed to be with Lewis Meyer. The letters of Tschirnhausen contain by far the most acute contemporary criticism of Spinoza.