In Defense of Free Will

The philosophical battle of free will and determinism has been present for centuries, bringing with it a host of moral and ethical implications. However, since scientist’s production of the first recombinant DNA and its hybridization in 1972 (genome.gov) genetic determinism has taken on a new set of circumstances. “Since the 1970s, numerous authors have examined …ethical issues raised by the genetic modification of human beings” (Resnik & Vorhaus, PMC), Octavia Butler being one of them. In her imaginative science-fiction novel, Dawn, she examines the idea of how genetic engineering

Free Will: “For the most part, what philosophers working on this issue have been hunting for is a feature of agency that is necessary for persons to be morally responsible for their conduct.” (2)

My second notion of free will requires that an actor is able to decide between different possibilities of actions that lead towards different futures. Robert Kane calls this concept ‘a garden of forking paths’; every action leads to other actions that again allow for alternatives of action (Kane, 2005: 7). If an actor could not have done otherwise, he would not have had free choice. Even if he did not choose to do otherwise, he could not have done so. Free will seems to require the power to do otherwise, or our actions would

Genetics play a huge part in who we are. But we also have free will. -Aidan Quinn Basically this quote is saying how we are raised in the home determines a big factory of how discipline we are however we still must take into consideration that we are still held accountable for our action regardless. Although how we were raised in the home play a major role with the choices we make in our entire lives as an individual. I do believe that morals have a strong factor in free will and determinism. Homes that teach morals and values in life have a strong factor in with their social behavior skill.

There are three major arguments in the thought of free and they are libertarianism, compatibilism, and fatalism. There are both a religious and secular position for this argument. The religious aspect of free will is that it is an objective by God, while the secular position is subjective to causal determinism and the effect of the physical and concrete things on the process of decision-making.

In fact, we do not know which of our decisions and behavior result from our free will or from our freedom of choice. Because we do not understand the nature of the forces that managed our lives. our Lack of understanding of these forces gives rise to the feeling that we have free will. actually we have the freedom to choose only one thing, except that everything we do dictates to us and is controlled by external and internal factors.

In the following essay I will describe the problem of free will and explain several different responses to the problem. These responses will be derived from the determinist, libertarian, and compatibilist views. I will end the essay by arguing that the compatibilist view seems to best address the problem of free will, but does not necessarily solve it.

The alarm clock sounds, you get up and stand before your wardrobe, facing a decision. The white shirt or the blue, both clean, both equally nice, but it is still an easy decision. The blue. You revel in your creativity and ready yourself for the day to come. The freedom you have always known permitted the choice, your free will grants you this privilege. Or does it? Free will is a false concept often confused with free choice. Free will does not truly exist, the limitations set by nature and the influence of other people hinder the ability to choose without the impact of past experiences.

Philosophers have debated and struggled with the argument of free will for centuries. In my opinion, I would like to believe that we have free will because I would hope that my decisions are mine and not of some powerful overlord or an advanced civilization in a simulation. Over the years there have been many theories or speculations about free will. Some philosophers would define free will as “the ability to do what we want to do”. With this definition, we do have free will because most of the time we can do what we want. However, we could be made to believe that it is our choice, but if we were to repeat a scenario where you choose option ‘A’ we would repeatedly pick option ‘A’ because it could not happen any other way. Different religions

Free will: the ability as humans to dictate our conscious decision-making. Does it exist or is it just an illusion, our every thought and action being decided when the universe was created? This question has puzzled philosophers for ages. There is no doubt that this issue makes those who ponder about the meaning of life even more unsure. If our actions are predetermined, what does this mean for personal and criminal responsibility? For respect, religion, morals, ethics, and the law? Our world has evolved based on the assumption that free will exists, so what are we to do if everything we have experienced can boil down to some simple (or maybe not so simple) chemistry and genetics? What happens if everything we believe in turns out to be just an idea?

We are raised to believe that we are the makers of our own destiny. Every decision we make is our own, and we are free citizens in every sense of the word.

Speaker notes: The question concerning a free will shouldn't be whether we have one, it should be whether such a thing is possible. We must ask ourselves, "Free from what?" A mind free from all motivating factors would have nothing to base decisions upon. There is just no such thing as an uncaused choice. Many people, religious and secular alike, wonder if cause and effect ultimately means that everything in the universe including human behavior is predestined, bound to happen, or predetermined. We are not made to do things by cause and effect -- we are PART of cause and effect -- we make ourselves do things. The cause and effect that goes on in our minds is what constitutes self, and our particular cause-effect process is manifestly different from what we normally think of cause and effect. We remember our past, and direct our actions to bring about specific results to satisfy feelings of need and desire -- something random causality cannot do.

Free Will often implies that we make our own choices and do what we are able to do. Descartes might argue that the will “can never be constrained.” However, most “Free Will” philosophy indicates there are factors that do constrain total free will. Factors such as human desire, temptations, human flaws, and arguably environment may have levels of constraint on our wills. For example, sure I want to lose weight and really nothing is stopping me, BUT my desire to lose weight must surpass my desire to eat chocolate cake, avoid the numerous temptations of all my baking colleagues, and I must also exercise. Typically, I attribute my lack of jogging to fate—it’s not my fault it was raining and I couldn’t

Proving whether or not humans have free will is tricky business. Numerous philosophers grappled with these questions for their whole lives, and more recently science has started to delve into the unconscious nature of human choices. Mark Balaguer in his book on free will set out to evaluate the arguments against humans having free will. The oldest argument for why humans can’t have free will stems from determinism. Determinism is the philosophical

Free will is the ability to choose freely and control our actions. Basically, free will shows the level of responsibility we claim for our actions and decisions. Obviously, if outside forces determine our choices, we cannot be held responsible for our actions. However, if our choices are made with total freedom than certainly we must claim responsibility for our choices and actions. God is justified in creating a world with the existence of free will which philosophers such as D’Holbach debated over it and provided some objections; meanwhile, free will brought the potential for existence of evil. On the other side, John Bender introduces “The prediction Room” to analyze human‘s free will.