Free Will and Determinism

Free will

  • Sartre- Existentialism is a humanism 1946

    • we are “condemned to be free”- our existence is not pre-determined and so we must create who we are

    • “man is nothing but what he makes of himself”- being free is a necessary component of being human and what makes us us

  • we all feel free

Challenges

  • this feeling of freedom is an illusion- functionalism, Daniel Dennett

  • we can’t base moral judgements on experience alone

  • consciousness may be something beyond our understanding

Hard Determinism

  • John Locke- an essay concerning human understanding 1689

    • we only appear to have free will because we are unaware of the predeterminants behind all of our choices

    • deliberation comes from an internal uneasiness

    • “looked room” man thought he had choice but was just unaware of external forces keeping him in the room

  • Susan Blackmoore- contemporary (psychologist)

    • all choices are predetermined by social, physical and biological causes

    • free will is often inaccurately presumed because of the belief in the “self” but the fact that there is nowhere for the “self” to reside proves there is no free will

    • higher human faculties should not be confused for free will

  • functionalism and neuroscience

    • Libet’s experiment (80s) in which he asked people to press a button when they made the conscious decision to and measured brain activity which showed brain waves occurring before people were conscious of the decision

Challenges

  • reductionist

  • falsifiability- just because some things are predetermined doesn’t mean everything is

  • implications of not being free- moral responsibility

Soft Determinism

  • we still have control even tho choices are influenced by other factors

  • internal vs external forces

    • internal= values, desires, beliefs

    • external= coercion from others etc.

    • actions arising from internal causes are free because the internal forces are a part of us

    • eg: going to Australia because we have a desire to vs going to Australia because we were kidnapped

  • Daniel Dennett

    • our higher faculties; values, beliefs and rationality gives us free will more than any other animal

  • Libet’s “free won’t”

    • idea presented after his experiment that we have the free will to not do things that are suggested by our conscious mind- overriding impulses

Conclusion

free will exists in a world with determinants due to higher faculties