Free Will
By Jeffrey Shamberger
Analyzing our individual free will can be very intriguing and can almost
reach the point of being paradoxical. Ultimately, free will determines the level
of responsibility we claim for our actions. 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.
The readings I chose offered two quite opposite theories on individual
human freedom, determinism vs. existentialism. In comparing these two
theories the contrasts are quite outstanding.
Evidently, some philosophers felt that human beings did not really have a
free will. This view, defined as determinism held that certain casual laws rule
what occurs in the universe. There are two major forms of determinism,
including hard determinism and soft determinism.
Hard determinism taught that each of our actions is determined by factors
beyond our control such as heredity and environment. From this point of view
there can be no real moral responsibility for our actions if our actions were
determined by factors beyond our control. There is a complete denial of
personal free will in hard determinism.
Soft determinism, however, appears to combine determinism and free will.
It teaches that all human actions are determined b ...