From this principle, it follows (I) that the distinction between right and wrong is part of the constitution of human nature; (2) that morality stands apart from theology, and the moral qualities of actions are determined apart from the arbitrary will of God; (3) that the ultimate test of an action is its tendency to promote the general harmony or welfare; (4) that appetite and reason concur in the determination of action; and (5) that the moralist is not concerned to solve the problem of freewill and determinism.
Mill tried to reconcile criminal law and its punishments with his very hard type of determinism by saying that law was needed in order to weight the scale, and in order to hold out a prospect of penalties which might deter from crime and impel towards good citizenship, so Paley held that virtue was not merely obedience to God but obedience " for 1 Criticism of the scheme, from the point of view of an idealist theism, will be found in John Caird's Introduc to the Phil.
Accordingly, the Thomist doctrine may be described as a moderate determinism.
It has frequently been confused with determinism, which, however, differs from it categorically in assigning a certain function to the will.
He attacked it mainly on the score of the moral evils that must flow from any system of determinism, and exerted himself in particular to vindicate the freedom of the will.