36 of 44

Write now Article Tools

As human beings our freedom to make choices in life has historically been under scrutiny. The term freedom' in this context relates to our day to day decisions and the choices made available to us, and should not be mistaken solely for political freedom. The question whether we are truly free to make our own choices has a number of responses. The two most extreme responses range from a definite No, where everything in life is pre-determined, to a definite Yes, where everything in life is unpredictable and full of random events. The former belief is known as determinism' and the latter is known as free will'. Both of these arguments will be explored to give an account of whether or not we are free to make our own choices. A theme running throughout both arguments is our moral responsibilities and being accountable for our own actions. It would be difficult to talk about freedom without exploring morality because they both have implications for each other. The first theory free will', which advocates that we are free to make our own choices, has always been an instinctive or a natural response with little evidence. Although this argument can explain our moral responsibilities because if we are free to do as we wish then we are accountable for our own actions. A number of philosophers have held this belief, including Aristotle, Kant and Sartre, each with their own personalised ideas that encompass morality. The second theory, determinism', advocates that we are not free to make our own choices because life on the whole has been pre-determined. In other words everything happens because of a previous event. This belief is heavily supported by science, which includes biology, physics, chemistry and psychology. However, the recent development of quantum physics has highlighted some problems with this argument, denoting that not everything is as predictable, on a sub-atomic level, as we initially thought. Even though the deterministic view seems a more plausible argument it still has it flaws. Not only has science developed further to disprove some of the previous evidence, but it also causes problems in the moral sphere. For example, if we are pre-determined to do every action then surly we can not be responsible for our own action, which quite literally means we could get away with murder. However, the concept of compatibilism was coined to try and remedy the problem between moral responsibilities and our choices being controlled.

The free will argument states that

• 1
• 2
• 3
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Exploring the concept of free will?
We want to hear your view. Write now!