{
  "id": "CH03.P022",
  "oid": 60,
  "kind": "paragraph",
  "label": null,
  "work": "orthodoxy",
  "edition": "pg16769-r1",
  "work_metadata": {
    "title": "Orthodoxy",
    "authors": [
      "G. K. Chesterton"
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    "description": "G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy (1908), his account of how he came to Christian belief: the full text with annotations, cited sources and commentary.",
    "original_publication_year": 1908,
    "alternate_titles": [],
    "subjects": [
      "Christian apologetics",
      "Christianity",
      "Philosophy of religion",
      "Paradox",
      "G. K. Chesterton",
      "English literature, 20th century"
    ],
    "metadata_version": 2,
    "metadata_updated_at": "2026-11-07T20:29:57Z"
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  "parent": "CH03",
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  "prev": "CH03.P021",
  "next": "CH03.P023",
  "url": "/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH03.P022",
  "text": "The worship of will is the negation of will. To admire mere choice is to refuse to choose. If Mr. Bernard Shaw comes up to me and says, \"Will something,\" that is tantamount to saying, \"I do not mind what you will,\" and that is tantamount to saying, \"I have no will in the matter.\" You cannot admire will in general, because the essence of will is that it is particular. A brilliant anarchist like Mr. John Davidson feels an irritation against ordinary morality, and therefore he invokes will--will to anything. He only wants humanity to want something. But humanity does want something. It wants ordinary morality. He rebels against the law and tells us to will something or anything. But we have willed something. We have willed the law against which he rebels.",
  "length_cp": 762,
  "sha256": "ad08dde5eb44c152cf5126ca3d2357335ebd2d26531a275227b1ff8792f88d6f",
  "children": [],
  "annotations": [
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      "oid": 165026,
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      "revision_oid": 165027,
      "created_at": "2026-11-07T16:33:54Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-11-07T16:33:54Z",
      "title": "Davidson's immorality and the will embodied in law",
      "work": "orthodoxy",
      "edition": "pg16769-r1",
      "anchors": [
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          "unit": "CH03.P022",
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          "paragraph": "CH03.P022",
          "exact": "But we have willed something. We have willed the law against which he rebels.",
          "start": 685,
          "end": 762,
          "prefix": " to will something or anything. ",
          "suffix": "",
          "url": "/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH03.P022#char=685,762"
        }
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      "metadata": {
        "run": "chapter-03-restart-2026-11-07",
        "paragraph_investigator": "P022",
        "task": [
          {
            "approach": "Interlocutors and historical debates",
            "question": "What does Davidson's own account of morality and will establish about the opponent described here?"
          },
          {
            "approach": "Philosophical contextualization: then and since",
            "question": "Does the defense of particular willing also establish the authority of existing law?"
          }
        ],
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      },
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      "created_at": "2026-11-07T19:04:35Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-11-07T19:04:35Z",
      "title": "What thought and choice need: from scattered virtues to a seamless character",
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        "pass": "argument",
        "task": "Developing argument of chapter III, The Suicide of Thought",
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