Essay on The Freewill of Humans

Diametrically opposed to hard determinism is a philosophical viewpoint with which free will is closely compatible: libertarianism. Proponents of this position, such as philosopher William James, maintain that humans are all free and therefore, liable for their actions. When making a decision, people “choose which path to take, and (…) are as a result responsible for that choice”. With this in mind, “the testimony of our direct, lived experience” is what offers “the most compelling grounds” for this argument; according to James, evidence of free will cannot be found through scientific study. Rather, the existence of free will should be determined by the average person’s “assumption that personal freedom and responsibility are valid concepts”. In short, the argument that libertarians assert is that free will should be believed in simply because the majority of the population believes in it. The existence of freedom will most likely never be definitively proven or

There are those who think that our behavior is a result of free choice, but there are also others who believe we are servants of cosmic destiny, and that behavior is nothing but a reflex of heredity and environment. The position of determinism is that every event is the necessary outcome of a cause or set of causes, and everything is a consequence of external forces, and such forces produce all that happens. Therefore, according to this statement, man is not free.

The aim of this essay is to prove the reliability of and why Libertarianism is the most coherent of the three Free Will and Determinism views. It refers to the idea of human free will being true, that one is not determined, and therefore, they are morally responsible. In response to the quote on the essay, I am disagreeing with Wolf. This essay will be further strengthened with the help of such authors as C.A. Campell, R. Taylor and R.M. Chisholm. They present similar arguments, which essentially demonstrate that one could have done otherwise and one is the sole author of the volition. I will present the three most common arguments in support of Libertarianism, present an objection against Libertarianism and attempt to rebut it as well as

If we didn’t, then we couldn’t be held accountable for our actions. We couldn’t be praised when doing good, nor shunned for doing bad. If we didn’t have freewill, laws would be pointless; we would be blaming someone for actions they had no control over. A determinist views everything based around natural law, from our behaviors even to the way we think; everything is already predetermined. I fail to believe in that entirely and neither could A.J. Ayer. He adapted his view based on behaviors of one’s character. In the book “The Philosophical Imagination: An Introduction to Philosophy”, Ayer redefines what freedom is as to be able to break down the argument. “Suppose that I am compelled by another person to do something 'against my will'. In that case, as the word 'freedom' is ordinarily used, I should not be said to be acting freely: and the fact that I am' fully aware of the constraint to which I am subjected makes no difference to the matter.” (Ayer, 114) He goes on to argue that the opposite of freedom is constraint. When we say or think: “the event was out of that person’s control” we are generally correct, the person had no say in the matter. We fail to see that the person is under constraint, not force, as their actions are not determined by their rational conscience. They may desire to make a different choice, but in the end are forced to make another. Ayer’s point in all this is to show both sides of hard determinism and libertarianism; while there maybe times where things are out of our control, we still have an opinion on the matter, and we still have a say in as to the majority of our other decisions. In redefining free, Ayer is able to conclude that compatibilism works because an action being caused, doesn’t mean it is constrained as one would believe it to be. He believed we need determinism to retain morality, as we determine who we are and the life we want to live. In such instance, we have a choice that leads to a series of

“The idea of free is opposed by that of determinism which, in simplest form, holds that every event has a cause. Id determinism is correct, then nothing happen that is not caused to happen by some other event, condition, or set of events and/or conditions—and this includes every thought and feeling we have, every choice we make, and every action we take. The logic of this idea is, for many people, less of a problem than its moral and legal implications. Not only does free will become limited (if not eliminated) under determinism, so too does moral responsibility or culpability” (Ethics, Crime, and Criminal Justice). Casey Anthony was free found not guilty when in reality there are evidence that she killed her daughter, Caylee.

Since it seems that I cannot deny determinism I will now attempt to falsify freewill. It may be true that we do not have free will and that all of our actions and future actions are already determined and destined to happen. However if we didn’t have freewill, then why would we have moral and legal practices? If we are not in control of our actions then how can we be punished for them?

Some proponents of free will argue that by choosing to do something, one causes oneself to act. One could have caused oneself to act in another manner, and therefore the act, although caused by that person, is still a free choice. However, that notion is held under scrutiny because a person who acts freely has no evidence that they have acted of his or her own accord. For all one knows, one’s actions and choices could have been causally determined, and although one thought one was acting out of free will, one is not. There is no definite proof to show that one’s choices are made freely. As A.J. Ayer stated in his essay, Freedom and Necessity, “…but from the fact that a man is unaware of the causes of his action, it does not follow that no such causes exist” (Ayer 272). Since there is no way of knowing if one exercises free will, determinism poses a serious threat to the concept of free thinking and free acting human beings.

As humans, free will is something we commonly assume we have. When evaluating what free will is, we become less certain. David Hume calls it “the most contentious question of metaphysics.” In simplistic terms, free will is having the ability to determine your own plan of action. There is a relationship between free will and freedom of action and causal determinism that must be evaluated to have a complete understanding of free will. There are compatibilist views that believe in free will and incompatibilist views that imply there is no free will. Free will is also related to both theological determinism and logical determinism.

4. Adam’s decision was made by his subjective ability to reason. There is no way for a scientist or other being to take apart Adam and physically analyze Adam’s ability to reason. Since choices and reasoning are not at all physical, they cannot share a physical cause and effect relationship, and have nothing to do with determinist’s causal relationship philosophy.

     The topic of freewill vs. determinism has always been something that has interested me. I follow the Christian faith very strongly but my views on the subject vary almost daily. The concept of freewill and determinism is something that, as a Christian, I often struggle with. By no means do I think that I have all the answers or that I am right. I believe that in order to find the truth or what is right you have to be willing to accept that everything you believe could be false. This is a topic that I have asked about and debated with many different Christian leaders including pastors, missionaries and youth ministers, as well as other people belonging to different faiths. No

According to hard determinism, if casual determinism is true then no one is free. By being unfree means that no one has free will or choice to act freely to do what

William Rowe defines gratuitous evil as an instance of intense suffering which an omnipotent, omniscient being could have prevented without thereby losing some greater good or permitting some evil equally bad or worse.(Rowe 335) In a world with so much evil it raises the questions If God is all powerful, all knowing and all good, how can he allow bad things to happen to good people? Can God even exist in a world with so such gratuitous evil? These are questions that has afflicted humanity for a very long time and has been the question to engross theologians for centuries. The existence of evil has been the most influential and powerful reason to disprove the existence of God. It is believed among many theist that God is the creator and caretaker

     Before one can properly evaluate the entire debate that enshrouds the Free Will/Determinism, each term must have a meaning, but before we explore the meaning of each term, we must give a general definition. Determinism is, "Everything that happens is caused to happen. (Clifford Williams. "Free Will and Determinism: A Dialogue" pg 3). This is the position that Daniel, a character in Williams’ dialogue, chooses to believe and defend. David Hume goes a little deeper and explains in his essay, "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding of Liberty and Necessity," that determinism is this: "It is universally allowed, that matter, in all its operations, is actuated by a necessary force, and

The decision we make on our own and the surroundings that we are exposed to make us who we are. The actions we make weather if it is good or bad, we still have a choice to determine them. We thousands of choices every day that may express us, but we are all human beings and we are not any different. Some choices we make may seem easy but some are more difficult to decide because it may change drastically who we actually are. The decisions we make in life could be anything such as, relationships, deciding which path to go to, and family etc. I am going to tell a story about someone who had the most difficult time in her life and how she is able to pass all of the obstacles. Reminding myself the story that I know, inspires me to do better every single day. Weather if my decisions are good or bad, I should not let others people judgmental words affect me and the choices I make are what makes me who I am. There was a girl named Erica and I knew her because she was my neighbor. Now, Erica lives happily and she is now a successful filmmaker. Her best friend told me her story about the life she lives in and what she has gone through. She told me how everything around her affects her and the choices she has made to get where she is at. Erica made choices that are good or bad, but in the end, she learns from her mistakes. Erica had a difficult time growing up such as being surrounded by negativity, her stepfather abusing her, and lastly doing drugs.

Human behavior has been a mystery to scientists and psychologists for years. What causes humans to act the way they do? Is it learned by experience, or inherited from prior generations? The human brain is a complex machine driven by numerous intangibles that influence our thinking process directly and indirectly.