Determinism And Free Will: Compatibilism

Free Will: Compatibilism Most people think that they have a free will because they have an ability to decide and make choices. However, determinists suggest that people are not free and their future is already determined. Determinism holds the view that every event, including human actions is brought about by previous events in accordance with universal causal laws. The opposite of determinism is indeterminism that argues people are fully able to make decisions. The solution to this dilemma lies in the theory that determinism and free will are compatible - known as compatibilism. In compatibilism, people are free in the choices they make if they are acting on the basis of their own desires; and they are unfree if they are being compelled to do something they don’t wish to do.

Compatibilists believe that in the world, there is a deterministic connection between motivation to act and our actions themselves. They identify free will with the freedom to act literally-the absence of something coercive or restraining controlling us. The freedom to act is just as important as having the freedom to will an action, although the two are different, because in order for us to freely act, we need the will and the physical ability to do so. However, one freedom does not depend on the other. Our wills can be free even if we are physically incapable of performing an action, and we can be coerced into performing an action (trapping our free will) even if we are physically free. Thus, if someone desires to commit a murder, and does commit a murder, they are morally responsible for that act, so long as their desire was not influenced by an external factor such as a mental illness. A compatibilist says that we are free if our free will is involved in the causal chain of events that is consistent with the laws of nature or anything else