Freedom Is an Illusion

Ð''Freedom is an Illusion' Ð'- Discuss

Freedom is a concept that is held in high regard and cherished by the majority of people. We use this freedom every day to make choices concerning our actions and reactions to situations that we find ourselves in, whether that be the choice of what to eat, or more serious choices such as whether to abort an unwanted baby. Actions and decisions can be prevented or changed by circumstances beyond the control of the person, but by this point it is generally the case that a decision or choice has already been made by the person concerning the course of action that they were going to take.

Determinists would argue a different perspective. Determinism is the belief that free will does not exist and that choices and decisions are made externally to us, by controlling gods or by fate. It is the belief that there is no such thing as freedom of choice in any situation, that we never have any say in what we do, and we are in fact like machines in that we are told what to do by something external to us. Everything in this world has a cause, and each of those causes in turn also had a cause, and this chain can be followed back to show a long, linear causal chain. (See Fig.1, below). This would indicate that we cannot possibly be free in terms of our actions, because we have no control over the chain of events that lead to an action. This would mean that each time we apparently make a choice, we are not really doing so because every action is caused by the actions and circumstances that preceded it. For free will to exist, surely we would have to be making choices in every situation and we would never be bound by fate? If this is true then it cannot be the case that both theories are correct. Most philosophers due to the scientific, a-posteriori evidence in its support generally accept determinism, or incompatibilism, as it can also be known, in its pure form. Science shows it to be true, as can be demonstrated by a family tree. Here each person is caused by their parents who in turn were each caused by their parents. Everything in nature can in this way be seen to have had a cause, and because we exist as physical beings in this world, that includes us. We are a part of nature and because of that we must abide by the laws of nature. This would then extend to human action, as our actions are caused by us and we are caused to do things by external forces. This theory is called the theory of Universal Causation.

In terms of morality this poses somewhat of a problem because if we have no control over what we do then no-one can be held accountable for any action, no matter how diabolical because they had no control over the situation. If free will does not exist then people should not be prosecuted for any crimes because they are not responsible for their actions, and because of this we could not be praised either when we perform actions that are deemed to be morally good because likewise, the person had no control over their actions and are therefore not responsible.

Everything has an external cause, everything is caused by something else, and determinists use this argument to prove that no-one really has free will. In their view there is no such thing as an action because action requires a choice, rather everything is simply an event, caused by an external cause. This means that no-one can be held responsible for any action because everything is caused externally. A person who shoots and kills another human being is only as responsible for that event as a person who contracts a hereditary disease, no-one is to blame.

A supporter of Free will would argue that this cannot be the case, because the person who shoots the gun would go through certain mental processes before the event took place. He would have to decide to buy the gun, they decide on a place, time, target and situation for the shooting. These decisions and thought processes that the person would go through are the evidence for free will. It would appear to be true in my experience that every time we make a decision, we go through processes in our minds of what we are going to do and make decisions about how the action should be done, even in banal tasks such as cleaning the house, deciding whether to vacuum upstairs before downstairs or vice versa.

The 19th Century novelist Samuel Boyle wrote a satire depicting the chaos that would ensue in a determinist and socialist society where people are imprisoned for catching a cold. This could be criticised however as not being an entirely apt criticism, because a determinist would argue that while it is accurate in that people who catch a cold are just as accountable as a thief or fraudster, that is only because neither can be held accountable.

There is a movement known as soft determinism which attempts to draw together the ideas of universal causation, everything having a cause, and the evidence presented above, concerning our thought processes before performing an action. Soft determinism would state that indeed there are certain situations that must arise beyond our control,