The Nature Of Free Will Essay

While it may just seem like semantics, free will and freedom differ. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines free will as a “voluntary choice or decision” or “freedom of humans to make choices that are not determined by prior causes or by divine intervention” (Free 1). Free will includes the ability to make simple, everyday choices. The definition of freedom differs from that of free will: “liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another” and “the absence of necessity, coercion or constraint in a choice or action” (Freedom 1). Someone with freedom can say, do, act, and feel however he wishes without the threat of outside forces.

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 libertarian view requires a free action to be non-random, uncaused and ‘could have been done otherwise’. However, indeterminacy suggests that a prior event provides a clue of a range of probable future events. Thus the indeterministic version of event is not uncaused. To explore the possibility of indeterminacy to be compatible with free action, we have to tolerate this shortcoming. Therefore in this essay, we will regard a person who acts freely as someone who could have non-randomly chosen other than the chosen non-random event. Whether the event is caused or uncaused is driven out of the equation.

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

encountered, therefore meaning that any consequences of a chosen action are the fault of the

Adults should make correct/good decisions when it comes to saving themselves from great danger or some else who might be in a greater danger. These important decisions must be chosen wisely, as it can prevent dangerous things to happen. An example of this would be if someone was speeding through the highway, as it was the drivers free will to speed, is a grave decision to make as the driver broke the law, putting himself into the attention of the police and getting a fine for speeding. Adults should take precautions about their decision making, stopping them from getting a fine or going to jail.Adding on towards choosing effective decisions, people should not only look out for themselves but also towards other people who may be affected by the choice.An example would be when speeding through the highway, not only is the driver putting himself into danger but also other drivers who are sharing the highway, more or less causing a dominos effect. In Canada people 18 years or older have the right to vote for the subsequent prime minister, and so people have the free will to vote for the rightful and deserving prime minister that they think should be, without having anyone changing your mind.People who make decisions with free will, would have the responsibility to work for a particular, such as a fast food restaurant, or even in a retail store. with such responsibility It can give students an opportunity to save up money for university/college, or for personal reasons. Within free will comes the responsibility of your own, knowing the positive and negative effects of choosing decisions upon

     Free will is one of the features that separates us as humans from animals and allows us to attain intelligent thought and reasoning. Of course, all of the features mentioned are unique to humans; the ability to exercise free will enables us to engage in all

A thing that is omnipotent (all powerful) has complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding, and perceives all things, past and present. Free Will gives a person the ability to think and act voluntarily. They are allowed to be the authors of their own life and are able to reject that a human’s actions that is determined by external conditions or fate. That being said if we don’t have free will all actions by every person would be a direct expression of God’s will. The question is whether we life by God’s fate that has been created for us or if we live by free will. However, the life we are living is governed solely by free will. We are all given the option to make our own decisions. Our fate, or the way our life turns out is the outcome of which ones we make.

There are many great philosophical ideas and questions that are known and of course unknown. One of the questions that really enticed my interest was the question of whether or not we have free will. I myself was once a believer of people having free will and doing what I want was my choice and my choice alone. However, after careful consideration and lectures I have been reversed in how I believe in free will. Is there any free will though? Many people would say yes there is and of course there are some who believe that free will is a fallacy and not to be believed. Whether or not there is free will is yet to be determined but what we have to go on and by is from philosophers and every person who has their two cents to fill in. In

Although there are numerous definitions as to what freedom mean based upon individual perspectives. Freedom can be defined as _________________ People might be limited by some constraint so freewill may not be completely "free" but the thoughts about possibilities are unlimited and the way in which people get involved in such possibilities is not an aspect that can limit freewill. In Sartre essay titled Existentialism and Human emotion, he points out that from the moment we are brought into this world, we take on the role of responsibility for all of our actions. It makes me think about what the term “free” truly refers when people use it. There aren’t any external benefits that humans can base the way we live. Regardless of whether someone gives you a choice or not, you still have the ability to choose. That is the one and only innate ability any one person possesses. Sartre says, we must be accountable for our actions because it’s ours and no one else’s. I doubt that God would want us to choose to take responsibility over one action over another because we think it’s in our nature to do so. If life was all about handing over our responsibilities to God or to another, wouldn’t you think we would be a less motivated society, without intentions to

As a concept, free will offers a tremendous opportunity to pursue rationality of purpose. Within this rationality, individuals find wisdom whenever they exercise it appropriately. Both Skinner and Bandura state that free will explore the determinant to the ability of humanity to discover the space around them (Koons, 2002). Over time, philosophers have maintained that free will offers itself as a gift to humanity. It is presumed, therefore, that free will is God’s ordination, and as such, man should not precede it. In the same vein, the authors suggest that, if not exercised properly, free will becomes a curse, a total scourge to humanity. In this context, free will can transmute into a deadly weapon that impedes the general well-being of

Freedom can be described as being spontaneous. A free act is unconditioned. Freedom is in fact, another kind of causality. The categorical imperative is something that has an end within itself. The categorical imperative can be achieved with a “free” act. The rationale that everything is causally determined says that morality is impossible and a sham. However, Kant argues that morality is somewhat possible if someone does a moral action in a “free,” unconditioned way. However, the freedom causality has never been observed because it is nearly impossible to understand someone’s motives. However, it could exist at least in theory.

Freedom is the ability to act, think, react, and behave without having a restrain or impediment to do this. Human beings are beyond lucky to have this ability and use it in a rational and conscious way. However, many doubts, questions, and concerns arise from this ability. How do humans get the freedom of the will? Are they using it for its intended and designed purpose? Philosophers have wondered and try to come up with an answer to all these questions. They have provided the two opposite points of view in regards the freedom of the will. George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Pelagius were two philosophers that had an extensive debate over the freedom of the will. Hegel in his “Lectures on the Philosophy of History” presented that free will is completely based on a divine providence. In the other hand, Pelagius, founder of Pelagianism, explained an opposite view about what Hegel thinks in regards to free will.

At this point you may be asking yourself, are we free or not? I believe yes. Although, the hard determinist view is correct to a degree about being able to predict human acts it still does not take away the ability to choose, which promotes freedom.

Before the answer to the question “Are Humans Free?” can prevail, one must consider what freedom actually is. Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. An