The Importance Of Free Will

For many centuries, philosophers have attempted to answer an important question: do we have free will? Though the answer may seem as simple as “of course we do, I can make my own decisions independent of what you are doing.” Significant philosophers like Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, and Lock have tried to tackle the issue of free will (Ekstrom 1). Today, there are three major types of arguments for free will: the hard determinist, indeterminist, and compatibilist. Knowing the veracity of free will is something we both want and do not want to understand because it could ruin us. We have a tendency to accept free will as real because it gives each individual a sense of meaning and autonomy. I am in support of the hard determinist, …show more content…
The hard determinist approach seems the most feasible to me because of the research gone into understanding and analyzing the causes and effects of numerous events in history. For example, World War I was caused by the killing of Archduke Ferdinand, which eventually led to global economic depression. This then led to the rise of Nazi power in Germany and eventual start of World War II. Additionally, some historians argue that World War II was a continuation of World War I with a pause. Through physical data, I can understand the argument they are making about World War II being an effect of World War I. Even though I take a rationalist approach to understanding the world, I appreciate the simplicity of a hard determinist approach. As often as I fall prey to believing I have a choice in life, I feel that I was predisposed to a certain “decision” which was already made for me. By taking a rational approach towards this “decision”, there is really only one reasonable outcome and the other course of events never existed. A way to understand the hard determinist approach is by looking at a decision for which college to attend. I was accepted to the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UH), San Diego State University (SDSU), University of San Diego (USD), University of Portland (UP), and Santa Clara University (SCU). Though it may seem like I have a lot of choices, I …show more content…
To put in simpler terms, how can we indict someone of a crime if it was out of their control? Going back to my previous example of Chad De Soto, how are we to indict someone of a crime if they were genetically predisposed to perform an act they had no self-control over. If the hard determinist case is decided to be true, then we should release everyone from their probation or jail cell. Assuming that every event and action was caused by some antecedent, then we should not be held responsible for an action that was not caused by us. Simply speaking, the determinist argues a domino effect, but they fail to explain why we hold people responsible for actions when it was a simple domino in a long chain. Moral responsibility should not be placed on the individual, but the cause of the individual. Assuming I ran over a dog while driving, where does the moral responsibility for the dog’s death lie? Is it with the car maker, me, my genetics, my parents, my grandparents, or my grandparents’ grandparents? The hard determinist approach to free will appears to be an excuse to avoid someone from being morally responsible for their actions. Are Down syndrome patients accused of being the reason they have too many chromosomes? The hard determinist approach argues that there is no buck to be passed around, yet we do that in our legal system. There