Free Will Theories
 Agency Theory: we define ourselves as agents
through free choices: this we experience (and
is what our theory should explain)
 Person Theory: one’s will is free if he/ she has secondorder desires to choose to act in certain ways; this
distinguishes persons from non-free beings
Harry Frankfurt
(b. 1929)
Objection to both theories: how can “we” be both cause &
effect?
Determinism: All events (including
human actions) have specific causes
Baron
d’Holbach: the brain is
material; its actions (e.g.,
thought, will) are dictated by
physical laws, heredity, and
environment
(1723-89)
(Hard) Determinism
 Behavior
is caused by unconscious desires and
fears (Freud) or environment and heredity
(Skinner). Freedom is an illusion; people are
not responsible for their actions—though they
can be held responsible for social purposes
Objections: how we can challenge or
change our attitudes if we are determined?
Why not explain behavior with reasons, not
causes?
Freedom - Determinism Theories
Compatibilism
(Soft Determinism): freedom
is compatible with determinism, if freedom is
understood as the ability to do what we want
Actions
caused by our choices or character are
free; actions caused by external forces (genetics,
culture, upbringing, threats) are not free
Choice/will (cause)
Personality
act
Hard determinist reply: choices are
caused by external forces.
(cause)
External
forces
Hume
Compatibilism/Soft Determinism:
freedom is compatible with determinism
A “free”
act is simply one that is caused
(i.e., preceded) by our choice or act of will.
We are free when we can do what we want.
choice/will/personality
(free)
cause
act
external threats/constraints
cause
(not free)
Objection: aren’t choices caused by “external”
forces (e.g., genetics, culture, upbringing)?
Freedom - Determinism Theories
Indeterminism:
like sub-atomic events, free
actions are unpredictable, because nothing
causes them
Objection:
if free human actions are chance or
random events, then we could not control our
“free” actions or be responsible for them
Libertarianism:
our free choices define our
selves: this is what we experience (and is what
our theory should explain)
Objection:
how can “we” be both cause & effect?
Freedom - Determinism Theories
Freedom
as an Assumption: Morality requires
that we think of ourselves as free. As objects
in the world, we are determined; but as
conscious, choosing beings, we are free (Kant)
Existentialism: freedom & self-consciousness
consist in our ability to conceive that which is
not—and that could not be caused by what is
Objection: Wanting
to believe in freedom does
not make it true; besides, even that is determined
Time: Reality or Illusion?
• Time is the objective, fixed sequence of events
in the world: “it” is real and does not change.
The subjective experience of time as moving
is illusory (McTaggart, Smart)
• Time is a mental construct in terms of which
all phenomena are experienced as real (Kant)
• Objective time is a conceptual abstraction that
fails to capture our real experience of duration
and the passage from past to future (Bergson)
In Defense of Free Will:
Thomas Reid
We
(1710-96)
are conscious of exerting our wills,
deliberating, and thinking of ourselves
as free to have done otherwise
If we are not free, regret, guilt, and
holding others responsible for actions
make no sense
Freedom - Determinism Theories
Indeterminism:
like sub-atomic events, free
actions are unpredictable, because nothing
causes them
Objection:
if free human actions are chance or
random events, then we could not control our
“free” actions or be responsible for them
Agency
Theory: our free choices define our
selves: this is what we experience (and is what
our theory should explain)
Objection:
how can “we” be both cause & effect?
Aristotle
(384-322 BCE)
Fatalism: What happens
could not have occurred
otherwise
Propositions
St. Augustine
(354-430)
about future events (including
human actions) are either true or false right
now; so the future is unchangeable (Aristotle)
God knows what we will do in the future; so
we cannot change the future (Augustine)
Determinism: All events (including
human actions) have specific causes
Baron
d’Holbach: the brain is
material; so its actions (e.g., thought,
will) are controlled by physical laws,
heredity, and environment
Pierre-Simon
(1749-1827)
(1723-89)
Laplace: with a
complete knowledge now of every
particle in the universe, we could
predict all future events
S. Freud
(1856-1939)
Contemporary Explanations
of Behavior
B.F. Skinner
(1904-90)
Our behavior is caused by:
 unconscious desires or fears and repressed
memories (Freud)
 environment, social conditioning (Skinner)
 heredity, genes
Objections: these accounts seem to make
freedom an illusion. But (1) how are we
able to change? And (2) why not explain
behavior with reasons, not causes?
The Determinist Argument:
All our actions are caused by forces over
which we have no control. And if we have
no control over our actions, we are not
free.
• Responses:
• Libertarianism: some actions are free
because they are not causally determined
• Compatibilism: even if all actions are
causally determined, we can still be free
Libertarianism:
Some human acts are undetermined
1.
2.
Argument from experience: we are
conscious of deliberating and thinking of
ourselves as free to have done otherwise
• Objection: this could be self-deception
Indeterminism: like sub-atomic events, free
actions are only probable, not determined
• Objection: if free actions are random or
only probable events, then we could not
control or be responsible for them
More Libertarian Arguments
3. The impossibility of self-prediction: any
prediction of our own behavior would
affect (and thus change) that behavior
• Objection: predicting what we will do
does not necessarily affect what we do
4. Moral accountability: if we are not free,
then moral responsibility makes no sense
• Objection: maybe regret, guilt, and
moral responsibility are unjustified