Determinism Vs Libertarianism Essay

In Philosophy, the argument of determinism versus libertarianism is never ending. Each side argues about whether free will is a choice or if everything in life is pre-determined. I will discuss both sides and choose the side I agree with.

To understand the argument, one must know the definition of free will. The most commonly used definition is that one does in fact have control over their actions or behavior. It is the idea that we have the ability to choose how we react and that we have the choice to choose our behavior; basically saying that we do have a choice in what we do. Determinism is defined as a belief that everything you do is a result of a prior action. In other words -- everything you do is predicted in advanced. Libertarianism is defined as the belief of free moral choice by denying determinism, and that free will exists in

The issue is not whether or not actions are caused, but whether they are caused or prevented by external constraints. Therefore, determinism and free will are compatible. People are free, but soft determinism disagrees with both the Hard Determinist and the Libertarian on what it means to be free. The soft determinist ‘Free’ means the ability to do what one wants and that those actions are free and not forced. Like Ayer statess in his argument, “if you are forced to do something you don’t want to, then you are not free. Soft determinism says that moral responsibility requires determinism with respect to a one's actions, for example the Jones examples; to hold Jones responsible for doing X requires that X was caused by Jones' desire. Jones does X freely and is responsible for it if it was his desire. In order to stop Jones from doing acts of kind X in the future, Jones has to be punished. There would be no point of punishing unless it would cause Jones to act differently so, moral responsibility requires