Free Will vs Determinism 101: Are Our Choices Truly Free or Determined?

You there, why are you reading this? Is it because you wanted to? did I do such a good job with curating a catchy name or there is only just one world, and someone determined you will read this on the day and time that you did. In this post we will tour the ideas and perspectives on the free will and determinism debate, the moral implications of standing with one over the other.

For my philosophias, we all know free will and determinism is one of the hot debates to have hit off in the history of philosophy. It goes back to the ancient period and keeps been picked by every age in philosophy, even in this contemporary period. Are we free or not? Do we choose or we are chosen? Are we solely responsible for our choices and actions or we are all puns in the hands of nature or an external factor who is behind all the choices we think we solely make? If yes to determinism, then freedom must be an illusion and if yes to free will then we are culpable for all our actions, whether good or bad.

Free Will vs. Determinism

Free will or determinism are opposite sides of a coin. Free will is a concept in philosophy that argues humans are free beings. We are free to make choices and are responsible for our actions morally and legally. Whilst determinism contradicts free will and propose that everything in nature and the universe including humans are determined. All events including human actions have been predetermined by some external factor.

The free will camp will argue you my reader, reads this because it's all a conscious choice you made while determinism camp will argue otherwise, you have been designed to read this on the day and time you did and so has every of your other actions. Whichever side of the argument you find yourself, it has implications on our understanding of moral responsibility, personal identity and the human condition.

Now let's look at philosophers and philosophies in the free will and determinism discussion

Libertarian Free will

Do not be confused by the heading, it's still the same thing as Free will. As earlier established libertarian Free will is the view that humans are entirely capable of free actions. If humans have free will then it means we have options and choices and we could choose one action over another. Bravo You could have read a different post, and I could have written a different blog post, but we all chose this post out of our free will.

Strong holders of this view include philosophers like Jean Paul Sartre. According to Sartre, "Man is condemned to freedom; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for all he does". As an existentialist, he was all about the individual and am guessing so are some of my readers but let's weigh the argument. If we are free to choose and make decisions, then we are responsible for every outcome of our decisions.

Are we truly free? Can we prove it? What rational or empirical argument can prove the concept of free will? Where would these free decisions that make one do one thing, and not another come from? Are they random? If you can answer these questions, if you can explain what would makes one act and chose one action over another, you would have affirmed the position of determinism that there is a cause for every action. A philosopher once asked, do we have free will or freedom if we are made to choose between options, having to choose alone makes our options limited.

For the free will libertarians like Sartre, the individual has the pen to write his fate, as cliche as it is, you can be anything you want. As ear pleasing and motivational as that sounds, the free will camp many at times does not have a rational or at least an empirical argument to make strong their claim on free will other than, "it feels a lot like we are free" purely intuitive. And as philosophy has instructed, we should suspend judgement till we can give a rational or empirical account on a belief

Hard Determinism

This is the believe that every effect has a cause. All our present actions are necessitated results of an event that occurred in the past. I was always made to write this post, and you were always made to read it. For philosophers like Spinoza, God and nature determined everything and just as it was designed, it all happens according to God's plan. For Epictetus, life is a stage, and we are all characters put on stage by writer. Meaning there is a script written out for us all and whatever we do and must have done in the past was scripted.

The moral implication of determinism is that one should not be praised or blamed for his actions as they are all determined, he couldn't have done otherwise. The evil stepmother is just a character and doing as the script said, the murderer in prison just played his role, the genius you feel intimidated by is just a character and so are you. So, determinism then imprint the argument that no one should be blamed or punished for their wrong doings if we go by determinism debate.

Derk Pereboom and Ted Honderich have argued that although we are determined, punishments can be a way to hold people accountable, maintain social order and deter others from committing similar actions. But this does not follow, if everyone is determined, punishment of one does not have an effect on the moral actions of another. If we are all determined, my societal punishment for stealing cannot veer you towards a negative attitude towards stealing if you are determined to steal.

One might ask, if I am determined why do I regret some of my actions? Regret means we could have done otherwise. If we are determined, were we also scripted to discover that we are determined?

Free will give us autonomy, make us feel in control of our decision making. It is an exciting way to look at life, as Free will preach we can be whoever we want to be. You blame yourself for not reaching your target and praise yourself for your success. It seems society itself is built on the idea of free will, that's why it set up rules and regulations, for it believe we can choose. Determinism makes one feel trapped, no one wants to hear they are puns and have no mind of their own. Determinism perspective can make one give up on having and chasing dream because what the point if everything has been written down. If you get depressed or angry reading this post on determinism, it's because you have been determined to. I guess that's why the stoics were unbothered about life.

There is also a third concept in this philosophical debate; compatibilism. is the view that both free will and determinism can coexist, but this will be a discussion for another post.

Where do you stand on the argument? No, I don't want to hear, I believe in compatibilism. Free will and determinism are contraries, so the truth lies in one. You cannot be on the fence about it. Share which camp you reside and why on the comments.

Authored by Favour Fineman