Hume: liberty of indifference & spontaneity

The liberty of indifference is the freedom to act against one’s own will, or contrary to it. For Hume, such freedom does not exist; a person’s will, once set in, determines the subsequent action. The will and its subsequent action are bound to one another. Hume argues it is not possible for one to negate such inevitability, to act contrary to their will. The liberty of indifference is therefore only a theory and can never be exercised in reality.

However, Hume says one can have the liberty of spontaneity. For example, if one is running late for work, one might walk at a brisk pace to ensure that they reach on time. However, if along the way they happen to bump into an old friend and are insisted to spare a few minutes for a cup of coffee at a nearby café, they will lose their liberty of spontaneity; they will no longer be able to successfully fulfill their will. The liberty of spontaneity therefore consists in unconstrained behavior; the unconstrained behavior is the liberty.

One may easily get confused between the Liberty of Indifference and the Liberty of Spontaneity. The Liberty of Indifference is the negation of causal necessity; the Liberty of Spontaneity facilitates causal necessity. It keeps one free from any constraint that may otherwise restrict them from acting upon the will in the necessitated manner.