When we say someone has free will, that person is often thought to be accountable for their actions. Determinism is the philosophical view that “human behaviour is entirely governed by causal laws” (Ayer 1954, p. 15). If it is true that our behaviour is determined by causal laws such as past events or actions and the natural laws, since we cannot change the past or natural laws it seems as though we have no control over our present or past behaviours; in other words, we do not have free will and cannot be held responsible for our actions (Ayer 1954, p. 15). There are those, compatibilists, who believe that the concept of free will can still be reconciled with the existence of determinism. In Ayer’s “Freedom and Necessity”, he argues that it is possible for us to consider free will in conjunction with determinism by considering free will to mean the ability to act on our beliefs and desires in the absence of restraint rather than causation (Ayer 1954, p. 19). He writes that:
It is not...causality that freedom is to be contrasted with, but constraint. And while it is true that being constrained to do an action entails being caused to do it, I shall try to show that...from the fact that my action is causally determined it does not necessarily follow that I am constrained to do it: and this is equivalent to saying that it does not necessarily follow that I am not free. (Ayer 1954, p. 19)
In other words, if I am acting under constraint, it follows that my behaviour can be explained by natural laws; however, “from the fact that my behaviour is capable of being explained...[by] some natural law, it does not follow that I am acting under constraint” (Ayer 1954, p. 22). Both of these scenarios proposed by Ayer are consistent with compatib...
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... free will. We then came up with two objections by first considering changes in the brain to simply be the establishment of new beliefs and desires that are freely acted upon rather than a constraint and by secondly considering our original brain states, that is our minds, beliefs and desires, to be constraints just as the changes in the brain in our examples were. Although there are possible responses to my objections that Ayer could make, I maintain that my objections offer at least a different perspective to the free will debate that perhaps expands the possibilities of what is considered constraint when using Ayer’s argument to determine if we have free will in certain cases.
Works Cited
“Brain Tumour Causes Uncontrollable Paedophilia,” New Scientist 22 October 2002.
Ayer, A.J. (1954). “Freedom and Necessity,” Philosophical Essays, St. Martin’s, pp. 3-20.
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Roderick Chisholm defends Libertarianism, and in his essay “Human Freedom and The Self” argues that we have freedom of the will. Chisholm does not abandon the idea of causes but instead defines two types of causation. The first is transeunt causation where one event or state of affairs causes another event or state of affairs. This causation is based on a relationship between events. The second is immanent causation where an agent causes an event or state of affairs. An agent is an uncaused causer of events who is not bound by the laws of nature. This causation is based on the relationship between an agent and an event. Chisholm quotes a passage from Aristotle to demonstrate his immanent causation, “Thus, a staff moves a...
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In Roderick Chisholm’s essay Human Freedom and the Self he makes the reader aware of an interesting paradox which is not normally associated with the theory of free will. Chisholm outlines the metaphysical problem of human freedom as the fact that we claim human beings to be the responsible agents in their lives yet this directly opposes both the deterministic (that every action was caused by a previous action) and the indeterministic (that every act is not caused by anything in particular) view of human action. To hold the theory that humans are the responsible agents in regards to their actions is to discredit hundreds of years of philosophical intuition and insight.
Before I begin it is pertinent to note the disparate positions on the problem of human freedom. In "Human Freedom and the Self", Roderick M. Chisholm takes the libertarian stance which is contiguous with the doctrine of incompatibility. Libertarians believe in free will and recognize that freedom and determinism are incompatible. The determinist also follow the doctrine of incompatibility, and according to Chisholm's formulation, their view is that every event involved in an act is caused by some other event. Since they adhere to this type of causality, they believe that all actions are consequential and that freedom of the will is illusory. Compatiblist deny the conflict between free will and determinism. A.J. Ayer makes a compatibilist argument in "Freedom and Necessity".
The problem of free will and determinism is a mystery about what human beings are able to do. The best way to describe it is to think of the alternatives taken into consideration when someone is deciding what to do, as being parts of various “alternative features” (Van-Inwagen). Robert Kane argues for a new version of libertarianism with an indeterminist element. He believes that deeper freedom is not an illusion. Derk Pereboom takes an agnostic approach about causal determinism and sees himself as a hard incompatibilist. I will argue against Kane and for Pereboom, because I believe that Kane struggles to present an argument that is compatible with the latest scientific views of the world.
Philosophers have pondered over the subject of free will for decades and there still hasn’t been a definite answer to the question of free will. What does free will truly mean? Is it just a figure of our imagination? Or is it something that has been around since the creation of men? These are only a small fraction of questions the topic of free will arises. Free will can be broken down into smaller and fewer overcomplicated categories. A normal person like you has free will if our universe revolves around the fact of determinism, if you believe this theory, then you’d be considered a compatibilist. Compatibilism allows us to hold people responsible for their actions. You believe that the reason why
In the debate regarding liberty (i.e. free-will) and necessity (i.e. causal determinism), Hume places himself firmly in the compatibilist camp by arguing that both notions can be reconciled. Though some of the arguments he presents in the Enquiry are unconvincing, Hume nonetheless still contributes to compatibilism by defining free-will and determinism in such a way as to avoid the logic of the incompatibilist position.
Freedom, or the concept of free will seems to be an elusive theory, yet many of us believe in it implicitly. On the opposite end of the spectrum of philosophical theories regarding freedom is determinism, which poses a direct threat to human free will. If outside forces of which I have no control over influence everything I do throughout my life, I cannot say I am a free agent and the author of my own actions. Since I have neither the power to change the laws of nature, nor to change the past, I am unable to attribute freedom of choice to myself. However, understanding the meaning of free will is necessary in order to decide whether or not it exists (Orloff, 2002).