Free Will Research Paper

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Wearing the Chains
“I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
The benefits of having an older cousin, who, in high school, took the same classes as you, can be numerous. Study guides were already filled out, notes were taken, and papers were completed. However, as is the case in the scenario for this paper, I declined my cousin’s offer for ‘assistance’. In declining the offer, did I act freely? At times, I do question whether I have free will. I wake up in the morning to an alarm, eat breakfast, jump into my car to get to class on time, talk to my classmates and then listen to lectures. Like declining to use the paper, do I act freely when these events occur? Baron d’Holbach, Benjamin Libet, and Harry Frankfurt developed their own belief, their own theory on the topic of free will. d’Holbach, a determinist, believed free will did not exist; Libet believed that free will existed all be it not scientifically founded; and Frankfurt, a compatibilist, believed free will and determinism are compatible. These three men had interesting ideas; however, Frankfurt’s beliefs falls in line with my views on free will.
Determinists believe that events are the result of natural law as well as preceding circumstances and conditions. One of the most well known determinists in history was the 18th century French philosopher Baron d’Holbach. He defended the belief that natural law affects events by stating that man (human beings) “is connected to universal Nature: submitted to the necessary, to the immutable laws that she imposes on all the beings she contains…” (d’Holbach, p. 97). He also defend...

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...of events that preceded the action of declining the paper. However, I’m not an angel and I don’t always do what my parents taught therefore, I was able to make the choice, a choice I wanted to make because it was the right thing to do, and thus I acted freely
In summation, the concept of determinism and free will is a complicated topic and can be debated upon in a variety of ways. Baron d’Holbach believed that free will did not exist due to natural law and preceding events, Benjamin Libet believed that, until scientifically disproved, free will did exist, and Harry Frankfurt believed that free will existed but not in every circumstance. Harry Frankfurt’s beliefs/views on free will and moral responsibility, however, are most closely connected to my own. Frankfurt (1971) said it best, “A person’s will is free only if he is free to have the will he wants” (p. 18).

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