Consider the view that humans have no free will.

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Stan Allen 12AH                                                        Philosophy – Ethics & Morality

“Consider the view that humans have no free will.”

 (25 marks)

The fact is we all act as if we have free will, regardless of what we say we believe about it, there are several factors to consider concerning this question, determinism, science, philosophical and theological ideas, compatibilism, moral nihilism etc.

In this essay I shall consider whether humans do or do not in fact have true control of their actions and have “free will” and if not, why not?

We need not enter into a philosophical debate between free will and determinism in order to decide how to act. Either we have free will or it is determined that we behave as if we do. In either case we make choices.

-Fisher and Ury,

“Getting to Yes” page. 53

There’s always been a significant relationship between freedom and moral responsibility; it’s commonly held that we should be morally responsible for the behaviour we perform. As moral agents we should be ready to accept the blame for the things that we choose to do, we should be ready to accept the blame for the things that we freely do wrong, although if we were to have a situation forced upon us where the circumstances would not allow any other choice other than to carry out an immoral action we would not be blameworthy. Vice versa if we were forced at gunpoint to assist a stranger we would not deserve honour or praise because it was an action that was not freely undertaken.
If in ignorance one performs an action which has an unpredictable immoral consequence, then we’re again not blameworthy because there was no way of knowing it could have caused harm or had ill-effect on another.
Unfortunately these situations can get evermore complicated, if someone isn’t entirely in control of their actions (e.g. if they were under the influence of drugs/alcohol or some kind of influence that caused the brain to act outlandishly) and they then commit an immoral action, they would not be fully morally responsible, although someone who has had a few too many may start a fight and things get out of hand, ending up in the victim being hospitalized, they would be partially morally responsible, but they would not have committed as great a crime as someone who intentionally attacked someone.

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Now, if we can only blame or thank people for actions they liberally and consciously undertake, then it’s fundamental that human beings have freedom to act.  Morality depends on freedom. Moral actions can
only be free actions, without freedom we would have moral nihilism.  If actions are determined then we can’t be blamed for a single thing we do in our lifetime, and this is the dispute brought about by the Christian idea of predestination (a Protestant view that God has already decided who will be saved and who will not) and the determinist ethical viewpoint.

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