Free will
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What is free will?
Free will, in philosophy and science, is the capacity of people to make choices and perform actions independently of any prior event or state of the universe.
Arguments for free will are based on:
* The subjective experience of freedom
* Sentiments of guilt
* The common assumption of individual moral responsibility that underlies the concepts of law
* Reward, punishment, and incentiveTheologians try to reconcile the existence of free will with God’s omniscience and benevolence and with divine grace, which is allegedly necessary for any meritorious act.
Determinism states that every event in the universe is causally inevitable, denying the existence of free will. Compatibilists, or "soft" determinists, believe that determinism and free will are compatible. Indeterminism, the extreme alternative to determinism, is the view that at least some events have no deterministic cause but occur randomly or by chance.
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How is free will different from determinism?
Free will is the capacity to make decisions or perform actions independent of any prior event or state of the universe. Some base arguments for free will on subjective experience, sentiments of guilt, or individual moral responsibility.
Determinism is the thesis that all events are causally inevitable, meaning it is impossible for a person to have made any other decision or performed any other action than what they actually did. Determinism is usually understood to be incompatible with free will.
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Why is the idea of making choices important for understanding free will?
The concept of choice is essential for understanding free will because free will is defined as the ability to make decisions independently of prior events. The idea of free action is formalized by the ability to act otherwise.
Arguments for free will are based on feelings of freedom, sentiments of guilt, and moral responsibility. The problem of free will and moral responsibility arises from the conflict between the sense of free choice and the understanding that decisions are influenced by factors beyond individual control.
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How does free will relate to responsibility for our actions?
The relationship between free will and responsibility is complex. The existence of free will is often seen as a prerequisite for moral responsibility. The idea is that one cannot be morally responsible for actions they could not avoid doing.
However, the problem arises when considering that our decisions are influenced by desires, circumstances, experiences, and traits beyond our control, which raises the question of whether our actions truly result from free will.
Determinists argue that all events, including human actions, are causally inevitable, which would negate free will. Compatibilists, also known as "soft" determinists, believe that free will and determinism can coexist. Those who deny free will are known as "hard" determinists.
Neuroscience studies on the readiness potential in the brain have also contributed to the debate, suggesting that voluntary actions originate unconsciously.
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How do philosophers disagree about whether free will exists?
Philosophers have diverse views on free will, leading to different schools of thought. Determinists, sometimes called "hard" determinists, deny free will, arguing that every event, including human actions, is causally inevitable. Compatibilists, or "soft" determinists, believe free will and determinism can coexist, often redefining free will to fit this view.
Indeterminism, the opposite of determinism, posits that some events occur randomly without a deterministic cause. Libertarians argue that humans possess free will within an indeterministic universe. However, libertarianism faces the "intelligibility" objection, suggesting people lack control over random actions, thus negating free will. These differing views highlight the complex philosophical debate surrounding free will and its compatibility with determinism and indeterminism.
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What are some arguments for and against the existence of free will?
Arguments for the existence of free will are grounded in the subjective feeling of freedom when making decisions. Many also believe free will is required for moral responsibility, as praise, blame, or punishment are only appropriate if the person could have acted otherwise.
Conversely, determinism poses a challenge to free will, suggesting all events, including decisions, are causally inevitable. Hard determinists deny free will, while compatibilists, or soft determinists, argue that free will and determinism can coexist. Indeterminism, the opposite of determinism, suggests some events occur randomly, supporting free will. However, the intelligibility objection argues that random actions are not controlled and thus do not reflect free will.
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Free will, in philosophy and science, the supposed power or capacity of humans to make decisions or perform actions independently of any prior event or state of the universe. Arguments for free will have been based on the subjective experience of freedom, on sentiments of guilt, on revealed religion, and on the common assumption of individual moral responsibility that underlies the concepts of law, reward, punishment, and incentive. In theology, the existence of free will must be reconciled with God’s omniscience and benevolence and with divine grace, which allegedly is necessary for any meritorious act. A prominent feature of existentialism is the concept of a radical, perpetual, and frequently agonizing freedom of choice. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80), for example, spoke of the individual “condemned to be free.”
The existence of free will is denied by some proponents of determinism, the thesis that every event in the universe is causally inevitable. Determinism entails that, in a situation in which people make a certain decision or perform a certain action, it is impossible that they could have made any other decision or performed any other action. In other words, it is never true that people could have decided or acted otherwise than they actually did. Philosophers and scientists who believe that determinism in this sense is incompatible with free will are known as “hard” determinists.
In contrast, so-called “soft” determinists, also called compatibilists, believe that determinism and free will are compatible after all. In most cases, soft determinists attempt to achieve this reconciliation by subtly revising or weakening the commonsense notion of free will. Contemporary soft determinists have included the English philosopher G.E. Moore (1873–1958), who held that acting freely means only that one would have acted otherwise had one decided to do so (even if, in fact, one could not have decided to do so), and the American philosopher Harry Frankfurt (born 1929), who has argued that acting freely amounts to identifying with or approving of one’s own desires (even if those desires are such that one cannot help but act on them).
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The extreme alternative to determinism is indeterminism, the view that at least some events have no deterministic cause but occur randomly, or by chance. Indeterminism is supported to some extent by research in quantum mechanics, which suggests that some events at the quantum level are in principle unpredictable (and therefore random). Philosophers and scientists who believe that the universe is indeterministic and that humans possess free will are known as “libertarians” (libertarianism in this sense is not to be confused with the school of political philosophy called libertarianism). Although it is possible to hold that the universe is indeterministic and that human actions are nevertheless determined, few contemporary philosophers defend this view.
Libertarianism is vulnerable to what is called the “intelligibility” objection, which points out that people can have no more control over a purely random action than they have over an action that is deterministically inevitable; in neither case does free will enter the picture. Hence, if human actions are indeterministic, free will does not exist. See also free will and moral responsibility.