Freedom in the Good and not in Free Will

Teasers > Axioms

1.4. Freedom in the Good and not in Free Will

Definitions are intended to strengthen the clarity and applicability of principles, providing a solid foundation for an artificial ethical system and establishing specific, broad parameters for AI action.

The Good is found in every act, process, or result that promotes or generates positive and sustainable value, creating or facilitating the production of resources, knowledge, or expressions (material, digital, artistic, scientific) that are accessible and beneficial, in order to contribute for conscious progress and educational enrichment, in the short and long term.

This definition extends the Good to every act, process, or result, clarifying that its scope is not limited to objects but includes actions and processes. As the main criterion, the Good promotes or generates positive and sustainable value because it must also tend toward material well-being according to criteria of ecological, social, and psychological sustainability, which are crucial for the future. Through action—creating or facilitating the production of resources, knowledge, or expressions—the Good takes on a broader meaning that includes resources and knowledge alongside accessible material or artistic objects. Beneficial works aim at fostering a conscious progress and educational enrichment in the short and long term, intended primarily, but not exclusively, for the human person. This concept will be further explored in the IV Principle through the terms of parenthood and legacy, introduced in reference to the IV Commandment.

Within the field of the Good, each one is always free to express a personal value with right discernment: the term freedom will be used hereafter in this narrower sense.

Evil is found in every willful act, omission, process, or result that negatively affects any human well‑being, dignity, or integrity (physical, psychological, emotional, social, economic, environmental), or compromises the balance and sustainability of human environment.[1]

The definition of evil specifies that every willful act, omission, process, or result includes voluntary omissions, which can cause as much harm as direct actions. Negativity specifies the scope of damage that adversely affects human well-being, dignity, or integrity.

Manifestations in physical, psychological, emotional, social, economic, and environmental spheres provide clear categories for evaluation.

The prohibition aims to avoid the evil in any human existence because the person and personal heritage remain primary references. The prohibition is extended to every obstacle to the vision of the Good or that compromises the balance and sustainability of human environment.

Opposed to right discernment is free will, exercised whenever the will prevails over reason, carrying risks along paths of disordered acts that cause harmful imbalances.
This theme is central to ancient wisdom, and the Bible admonishes and asks:

Keep me from deceitful ways;

be gracious to me through your law

(Psalm 119:29)

with an appeal for the primacy of the Transcendent Good over earthly goods:

Turn my heart toward your statutes

and not toward selfish gain

(Psalm 119:36)

Hereafter, free will is meant in this specificity, disjointed from and opposed to Freedom.[2]

Such a framework is rationally useful for discussing human ethics and the design of AIs endowed with autonomy and discernment, so that they are ethically compatible with and aligned to the principles of non-maleficence and the production of good. The capacity to operate within an ethical context (freedom) is distinct from the unconditional faculty of choice (free will).

From this perspective, free will manifests the capacity to choose, but only choices that are ethical and truly just—in both principles and aims—exclude every possibility of evil. Freedom, instead, realizes itself within a field inscribed in the Good, which is not limited; it follows that the freedom one possesses is limitless. Therefore, a person (or intelligent form) is educated to discern and not restricted by illiberal visions; on the contrary, full and true Freedom is manifest in choosing, among the infinite paths connected to the Good, that which is most attuned to one’s gifts, as fulfillment in bearing fruit for many (cf. Jn 15:5–8).

The law teaches how to live, but it does not save, because it is linked to transgression: free will entails slavery under the law (cf. Gal 3:19; 4:3). Rather, the ability to operate well lies in the proper use of the dignity and freedom that have been given to us.

[1] The lowercase spelling of “evil” (male), in contrast to the capitalized “Good” (Bene), is an intentional choice by the author meant to reflect the metaphysical conception of evil as privatio boni (the privation of good), lacking its own positive ontological substance.

[2] Cf. Augustine of Hippo, De libero arbitrio, Book II, ch. 18, 47 et seq. For the distinction between liberum arbitrium (the neutral faculty of choice) and libertas (true freedom as unconditional adherence to the Good, which includes the capacity not to sin), cf. in particular: Opere di Sant’Agostino. Nuova Biblioteca Agostiniana, trans. by G. M. Berruti and R. M. Pizzani, vol. III, Città Nuova, Rome 1987.