Transcript Free Will - Kelly Inglis's Weblog

The importance of free will
Human autonomy and dignity
Value of deliberation
Deserving praise and condemnation
Moral responsibility
What is free will?
The ability to act freely
David Hume
Our actions are free if they are under our control.
David Hume defines freedom as “a power of acting or of
not acting, according to the determination of the will.”
(1748, sect.viii, part 1)
Freedom of action
Definition 1:
Free will is the ability to do what we choose to do.
We are unrestrained.
Problem: is the choice free?
Is an animal free just because it can make choices?
What about a computer?
Is a brain-washed person free? A hypnotized person?
Compatibilism
Definition 2:
Harry Frankfurt
A person is free if they are able to make choices rationally
on the basis of their goals, desires and values.
People are not at the mercy of every passing desire.
People act according to second-order desires (Frankfurt).
Problem: Are the goals, values or second-order desires free?
Libertarianism or Hard
Determinism
Definition 3:
A person is only free if their choices are
underdetermined
Genuine (undetermined) ability to do otherwise
The garden of forking paths
Determinism
 Determinism vs. fate
 Fate: certain actions or futures are fated to us, in spite of our own
desires or our efforts to change things
 Determinism: every thought and every action is determined by
something outside of ourselves (e.g. God or the state of the universe
before we were born)
 Determinism by God
 God made us in full knowledge of everything we would be and do.
 Determinism by physical laws
 Every thought or decision we make is determined by physical
processes in the brain
 The laws of nature work the same way within the brain as out in the
world
 The mind is the brain
Libertarianism
Libertarianism:
Free will is possible only if determinism is false. We do
have free will. Therefore determinism is false.
Problems:
1) Indeterminism doesn’t help
2) Nothing can be ultimately self-generated, therefore
nothing can be completely free or completely
responsible for being what it is
Hard determinism
Hard determinism
Free will is only possible if determinism is false. But
determinism is true. Therefore, we do not have free will.
Problems:
1) It seems like we have free will.
2) There seems to be a difference between free actions
and unfree actions.
3) If there is no free will, a carefully considered plan is
no more free than the act of a person under hypnosis.
No free will, no how-ism
The concept of free will is incoherent.
Free will is impossible whether determinism is true or not.
Determinism makes our actions unfree.
Indeterminism also makes our actions unfree.
Free will requires self-generation, which is
logically impossible
Free will is incoherent – not even possible to imagine.
Problem: If free will is incoherent, the term “free will” has no
meaning. But surely it means something!
Summary of possible stances
1) Compatibilism (soft determinism)
2) Libertarianism
2) Hard determinism
4) No free will, no how (free will is incoherent)
The importance of free will,
revisited
Human autonomy and dignity: are we less if we are not free?
Meaningfulness of deliberation: does it make sense to
deliberate if our actions are determined by physical laws
Deserving praise and blame: does it make sense to praise or
blame people for their actions, if their actions are not free?
Moral responsibility: does it make sense to punish someone
for an act that was not freely willed?
Recommended Readings
Andrew Morton, “Free Will” in Philosophy in Practice, Ch. 14.4-14.5, on
reserve in the Philosophy Dept. Office
Thomas Nagel, “Free Will” in What Does It All Mean?, Chapter 6, on
reserve in the Philosophy Dept. Office
Stephen Law, “Do We Ever Deserve to Be Punished” in The Philosophy
Gym, Chapter15, on reserve in the Philosophy Dept. Office