A will that wants itself is infinite. What does that mean?

We usually imagine the infinite as something very far away. A line that goes on and on and never arrives. Or the space beyond the stars. The farther away, the more sublime, or so we think.

But such an infinite always has a limit: us. It stands over against us, outside, beyond. It is only what we are not. This is a bad infinity, only half an infinity.

The better image is the circle. It has no beginning and no end. It runs into no outside limit, because it returns into itself.

The free will is like this. What it wants is itself. Nothing foreign stands over against it, so it has no barrier. It is infinite, and not somewhere far away, but here and now.

It is also not merely a possibility. A potential can unfold, or not. This will is already real. What it is on the outside is exactly what it is on the inside.

This affects the way we talk. When people simply say “free will”, they usually mean only choice, that is, the potential for freedom. That is the natural will, which we already know. Only the will that wants freedom is free in the full sense.

Summary: The true infinite is not far away. It returns into itself like a circle. The free will is like this: It has itself as its object, and so it has no limit from outside.