Michael Mitchell: Archive

The full power (whatever that means) of volition is necessary to go nowhere as well. It's necessary even to see the directions. He means determination or a sense of purpose, which is guiding that power -- the power to project the future and control your actions towards the goals you choose to reach or achieve or create -- not the power itself. In other words, this is moralizing. If someone could really only possess half the power of volition, if ultimately going nowhere was actually their inevitable fate, absolutely beyond their control, it would justify enslaving them for their own good, to anyone who believes going nowhere is bad for everyone, as individuals and as groups, that unlimited progress is the standard of ethics. It would be impossible for someone with half volition to be moral.