The Will and Its Freedom - Metaphysically Speaking

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A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

One of the most important aspects of the Catholic understanding of the human person is God's gift to Man of free will. How are we to understand will and free will.

The will is that power within the soul, which “must of necessity adhere to the last end, which is happiness…” (S Th, I, q. 82, a. 1). This direction of the will to its last end is “voluntary because it is according to the inclination of the will” (S Th, I, q. 82, a. 1). Although the will is inclined to happiness by necessity as its last end, “we are masters of our own actions by reason of our being able to choose this or that.…choice regards, not the end, but the means to the end…” (S Th, I q. 82, a. 1, r. 3). The individual, furthermore, has free will, because “…man acts from judgement, because because by his apprehensive power he judges that something should be avoided or sought…therefore he acts from free judgement and retains the power of being inclined to various things.” (S Th, I, q. 83, a. 1), and “..in that man is rational, it is necessary that he have free choice” (S Th, I, q. 83, a. 1). In having free will, the individual’s will “…moves the other powers of the soul to their acts,…for the end and perfection of every other power is included under the object of the will as some particular good…to which belong the particular ends included in the universal end” (S Th, I-II, q. 9, a. 1), which is, of necessity, happiness.

Notice that it is not will to power, but "will is that power within the soul," which must adhere to happiness. What, then, is our happiness?