I Feel Free

Humans think that we have free will, but how free are we actually. When you make a choice you think that it is free will. But really that was what you were supposed to choose all along. We all have a path that our lives will follow no matter what we do. Now are we still free? Some would say yes, because we are still given the choice in the first place. Others would say no because we can really only pick one thing and nothing else. Paul Holbach does not think we have free will. The basic…

If we live in a world where free will existed we would always be morally responsible for our actions because we always have options to do otherwise, this is known as the principle of alternate possibilities. For now let us assume that we live in a determinist world where our life events are predetermined would we be responsible for our actions even though we have no control over them? It is very hard to imagine how someone could possibly be responsible for actions they had no control over but…

The problem with free will is whether or not we make our own decisions or not. In this essay, I will discuss the three main points of view that tries to answer the problem of free will. The first argument is that we have free will, which is the idea that we have complete free choice and freedom. The second theory is determinism, which says everything is inevitable and everything is caused by previous decisions in the past. The third point of view is compatibilism. Compatibilism says that most…

question here is what is free will? Historically speaking, it is the action of acting freely; meaning everything is done causally due to the person. Free will and moral responsibility go hand in hand, but the issue is can a person really be in control of these things they had no control over? The problem with free will is that we believe determinism is true, but also that we are morally responsible; meaning we are held responsible for the actions we choose. In this paper, I am going to be…

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…

The Problem of Free Will: Libertarianism The problem of free will discusses whether or not there is free will and moral responsibility in one’s actions. Causal determinism, the idea that physical events and actions have physical causes, plays a main role in this debate because it determines whether a person has control over their actions (G. Tiller, personal communication, October 2015). In hard determinism, there is only causal determinism so, a person has no control over the choices they make…

it…” (Burgess, Clockwork 40). This points to the idea that if people are good, they are choosing to be such due to a desire to do the right thing. If people do not have the option to choose, they are not really free. Alex is free at some points throughout the novel; For example, Alex is free before and after the Ludovico technique. However, while he is under the Ludovico technique, he does not express freedom. In the beginning of the novel, before…

Free Will Definition: An agent is free to choose whether to do or not to do something with nothing or no one preventing them of doing so (Thomas Hobbes & David Hume). Freedom of Will VS. Freedom of Action: Freedom of will allows an agent to choose. Freedom of action allows you to act freely. It's depends on the individual to decide if we need to have both or only one of these elements to be considered as having free will. However, freedom of action couldn't exist without freedom of will.…

Free will has always been something that I thought was obvious to be true. However, after learning different perspectives and theories about the matter, I am not so confident in my conclusion. Free will versus determinism has been debated by philosophers for millennia. These major ideas of discussion have a variety of different interpretations. Whether we are deciding between major, life changing paths, or simply, opting to wear a sweater instead of a t-shirt on a given day; the selections we…

In the free will vs. determinism debate, hard determinism seems to be a dominant belief. Hard determinism is the belief that free will and determinism are incompatible ideas, and that it is not possible to truly believe in both without being logically inconsistent. Under hard determinism, there is a view called hard incompatibilism which Smilansky subscribes to. Hard incompatibilism is the belief that determinism is incompatible with both human freedom and moral responsibility. Saul Smilansky…