It is a common debate in philosophy over whether or not man is a free agent, that is, if he acts freely. Determinism is the proposition that everything is determined by prior states of the world and the laws of nature. If man is part of the physical world, including his brain (which would include his thoughts, desires, deliberations, emotions, etc.), then it seems that he is determined to be what he is and to do what he does. If man is determined, is it possible that he may still be able to have free will? At first glance one might think that the two, determinism and free will, are incompatible, that is, that it's either one way or the other. But this may not be the case, it may not be as simple as that. It depends how you define free will.
One formulation is that free will is the the power to do otherwise. Here's an example. I went to class today. If I really had free will, according to this definition, then I must have had the power to have not gone to class. But if I am determined to do what I do, then I could not have done anything other than what I did do, and then I cannot have free will according to this definition.
Try out this definition: Free will is the power to be able to do what you want to do. This definition is much less problematic. Take the example of me going to class today. I went to class because I want to get a good grade. No one prohibited me from going, I went because I wanted to go. It may be that I am determined to have the desires that I have (such as the desire to want to get good grades in school and the desire to go to class), but nevertheless I was free to do what I wanted to do. With this definition of free will, I can be both determined and free at the same time.
Locke gives a lot of his own thoughts on freedom and the will in Locke Bk. II, Chap. XXI.
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2 comments:
I like that, but still if you can only do one thing you can never know. This is what L goes into when he states that if a person is brought into a room and locked in it while they were sleeping and awoke to be with a person whom they were hoping to see and thus did not wish to leave, they would be free.
I am wondering if free will is even really a problem because of super postion theory where the same electron goes through a course and takes every path simultaniously and the frequancy is based on probablity(if there is a frequency?). So i am thinking, if an answere toward personal identy is given it may turn out that free will is an absurd question like as locke put it asking if the "singing sings". Thats a really rough idea but interesting.
I like the line you draw between possible actions, and your possible actions. There are given choices that could be made, but in the end, the choice that you made is the only one that you yourself could have come up with...else you would have someone else making your decisions.
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