Does Free Will Exist By Robert Kane Analysis

PHL 105

Prof Katz

Sardar Zarak Khan

1000919116

TA Andre

Word : 1803

Does Free Will Exist?

Robert Kane in his thesis, initiates by providing a remark regarding the eternal feud between the advocates of determinism and those of the free will doctrine, and how this quarrel has overlapped into the ancient real of religion and that of contemporary science. The author indulges the reader by referring to certain questions that challenge the logical balance between free will and determinism which according to some schools of thought makes the presence of both simultaneously intrinsically impossible. Another such question he raises has its roots imbedded in the modernistic view of the world which relies upon empirical evidence.

David Hume somewhat concurs to this belief and aims to provide an explanation of these notions in a way where he believes that the people who dispute/support these arguments will be able to conclude in a similar way regarding their pre-held beliefs on this subject. Even though it might seem a bit presumptuous, he believes that the only reason that we are not able to agree on said topic is due to the difference of opinion in our definitions.

Both authors agree on the aspect that freedom is an extremely important factor in our daily lives. As Kane describes it we require freedom,' In order to have the capacity and opportunity to satisfy more of our desires.' Robert Kane goes on to describe what he believes a stark yet unnoticed distinction in the forms of freedom, i.e. surface freedoms which he describes as "everyday freedoms," which are manipulated by external sources and the actual free will which gives us, " The ultimate say about one's will" . Somewhat simi...

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...ghtenment School of Thought." This school of thought proves to be somewhat illogical as they lay great emphasis upon the fact that all human beings think and act similarly which according to my perspective is not entirely correct. This assertion of all human behaviour following from the same motives and causes might be held true for the earlier stages of our lives, but not entirely as we are moulded into adults. Furthermore, another such thought process that Hume invokes in his thesis which I do not entirely agree to is how determinism ceases to rely regarding events that are necessary and that we rely upon these events to be necessary by thinking of them as such. These arguments, in my opinion, would have been operational and logical in that era however in this modern era faced with certain empirical evidence these would be not be so easily proved than he states.