John Locke

Quotes From

Voluntary, then, is not opposed to necessary, but to involuntary. For a man may prefer what he can do, to what he cannot do; the state he is in, to its absence or change; though necessity has made it in itself unalterable.#
It is as insignificant to ask whether man’s will be free, as to ask whether his sleep be swift, or his virtue square . . . Liberty, which is but a power, belongs only to agents, and cannot be an attribute or modification of the will, which is also but a power.#
If it be reasonable to suppose and talk of faculties as distinct beings that can act (as we do, when we say the will orders, and the will is free), it is fit that we should make a speaking faculty, and a walking faculty, and a dancing faculty, by which these actions are produced, which are but several modes of motion; as well as we make the will and understanding to be faculties, by which the actions of choosing and perceiving are produced, which are but several modes of thinking.#
The question is not proper, whether the will be free, but whether a man be free.#

Inside and Outside Perspectives on Institutions: An Economic Theory of the Noble Lie
If there exist no incentive or selective mechanisms that make cooperation in large groups incentive-compatible under realistic circumstances, functional social institutions will require a divergence between subjective preferences and objective payoffs – a “noble lie”. This implies the existence of irreducible and irreconcilable “inside” and “outside” perspectives on social institutions; . . .