Abraham Tucker and Herbert Paul Grice

by JLS
for the GC


Abraham Tucker (1705-1774) was an English country gentleman and philosopher, discussed by J. Harris in his landmark study, "Liberty and necessity: the free will debate in eighteenth-century British philosophy" (Oxford, 2005).
In his essay on "Free Will" came out in 1763 he develops a theory of the will along Hartleyan lines. Tucker, in his enormous is principally concerned to show that freedom and providence are not in fact at odds with each other. It is in this connection that he differs most markedly from Hartley and Priestley, for both Hartley and Priestley believe that the doctrine of necessity entails that God is directly responsible for every human action. What, then, to do about the apparent prevalence of evil in the world? It is in providing an answer to this question that the association of ideas shows itself to be central to the solutions Hartley and Priestley give to the free will problem. His essay on free will was reprinted in his monumental "Light of nature" (1777).

Tucker's is a soft determinism that is compatible with free will, since

"[F]reewill needs no compulsive force to
keep her steady, for she communicates, by
antecedent and external causes giving birth
to her motives, with the fountain [God's design] whence
all the other streams derive"

([1777] 1977, vol. 4: 303).

According to Tucker, 'rectitude hath not a substantiality or distinct essence of its own, but subsists in the relation to happiness, those actions being right which upon every occasion tend most effectually to happiness' ([1777] 1977, vol. 7: 151).

Tucker says of the will, general, that it is the active element of the mind.

'All her motions depend upon motives, thrown
upon her from external objects, or conveyed by the
channels of experience, education, and example, or
procured by her own cares and industry, whereto
she was instigated by former motives"

([1777] 1977, vol. 4: 302).

This 'active ingredient' in all our motives, however we might describe their details, is the prospect of our own satisfaction. Tucker understood 'satisfaction' to be a more general term than pleasure, combining the presence of any desirable feelings with the avoidance of any undesirable feelings. And 'the summum bonum... happiness... is the aggregate of satisfactions' ([1777] 1977, vol. 2: 233). Thus we are absolutely determined to seek our own happiness.


Chapter 26 of his monumental "Light of Nature" reprints that section on "Free will":

http://books.google.com/books?id=RC5dAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA353&lpg=PA353&dq=%22Abraham+Tucker%22+%22Light+of+Nature%22+%22free+will%22&source=bl&ots=wdzZ8rXWv0&sig=zvLsAIToD9QIX8PiRakxIU0Yp00&hl=en&ei=ttOrTfylK9OdgQee1eHzBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=free%20will&f=false