Free Will, Determinism, and Responsibility

Free Will, Determinism, and Responsibility

There are many events in a person's life that have an impact so large, that the person' life is forever changed. Hopefully most such events are positive, and help him in his life. However, there is also the undeniable fact that bad things happen. It is not uncommon to hear someone wondering aloud why an event took place. A person's actions come into question, and it is wondered what the person's motivation was. Once we start questioning the events of our lives, we begin to test out different theories that we have heard over time. "It was fate," or "It is part of God's plan," or other theories which attempt to put some meaning and reasoning behind events in our lives. Human's also begin to wonder how it is that their actions are determined. Aside from these various explanations, philosopher's have created explanations which can tell the story of human action. There are four main positions that one can maintain. Hard determinism, compatibilism, indeterminism, and scepticism. Each of the stances holds a different explanation for human action which can be argued and debated. I believe that the idea of compatibilism is the best answer to this problem. Combining determinism with responsibility makes for the best argument and explanation for human action.

Compatibilism is the "reconciliation of responsibility and determinism." It is the attempt to allow a person's actions to be causally determined, yet the person still be responsible. On the surface, this does not sound like it is possible. If a person's actions are causally determined, that means that they have no control over them; the action was determined without their knowledge or consent. If this is the case, then...

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...control. The claim that most who support determinism would make is "My actions are the products of pure chance….therefore, how can I be held responsible?" However, the rebuttal to that is that a person's actions are not products of chance, but of choice. Because of this, we can see how we can be held morally responsible.

Indeterminism states that at least some events, mostly human actions, are not completely caused. The main argument for indeterminism is that it is a rejection of causation, there is no explanation, and without explanation, there can be no responsibility. However, indeterminism is not a complete rejection of causation, and therefore it is impossible to eliminate explanation and responsibility based on that statement. This is an argument against indeterminism that allows us to see a flaw in the argument, yet contemplate it's validity.