The cartoon shows a man walking past a door with a sign saying “Philosophy Dept. Trespassers Will Be”. This can be interpreted in different ways; firstly, it can illustrate Libertarianism as the sign is an incomplete sentence stating “Trespassers will be…” The fact that the sign is incomplete, portrays the idea of free will as even though the man has already trespassed the Philosophy Department, his destiny (what he “will be”) is still yet to be determined. Libertarians believe that no matter how much a person is influenced by external effects to follow a particular path, they still have the power of free will to do otherwise. For example, a child born into a third-world society still has the free will to break free from a life of poverty regardless of the situation he has been “thrown” into. This means that forces outside our moral consciousness should have no bearing in the moral decisions we make in life – making us completely responsible for our moral actions. Libertarianism is favourable because the concept of having freedom and control over our own moral actions is an appealing one. However complete free-will can be also extremely frightening as it leaves us accountable for any mistakes that we make, we will be subjected to blame for any immoral action we make as we have been given the power of free will to make it.
Although the cartoon provides a strong portrayal of Libertarianism, it can also express ideas of Hard Determinism. Although it may appear that the man is “trespassing” the Philosophy Department due to his own free-will, Hard Determinists would argue that he was in fact, predetermined to do so and that the free will that he appears to have had is nothing but an illusion. Hard Determinism is has ethical parallels with the idea of predestination – an idea originating in St Paul’s letter to the Romans that God has already chosen beforehand who will be saved and who will be condemned. John Calvin – a protestant reformer- described predestination as “the eternal decree of God… he does not create everyone in the same condition, but ordains eternal life for some and eternal damnation for others”. This idea that God decides the destiny of human beings before the creation suggest that human’s do not have free will as everything we do in our life has already been predetermined to happen. Honderich stated that “…all our choices, decisions, intentions, other mental events, and our actions are no more than effects of other equally necessitated events” – this suggests that all of our actions are the result of something that has been predetermined for us, although in life it may seem like we have the freedom to make our own decisions, this freedom is actually an illusion. John Locke illustrates this view with the idea of a sleeping man who is put into a locked room, when he wakes; he chooses not to leave the room although he believes that he could leave the room by walking through the door. However, the door is locked and he could never achieve leaving the room. This analogy coveys that even though it may seem like the choices and actions we make are out of our own free will, they are in fact already predetermined courses of action. The major criticism of Hard Determinism is that because everything we do is predetermined, we cannot be responsible for any immoral actions that we make as it is not our fault. This leaves people with the ability to justify anything as they can claim it was always going to happen.
Considering both sides of the argument, it is evident that the most logical and realistic idea would be a middle ground between the two extreme views. I believe that although Libertarianism an appealing ethos, disregarding all external and predetermined values would be irrational. There should be an extent to which free will is not applicable and instead take into account some aspects of human beings that are determined. For instance genetics, socio-economic, backgrounds, religio-cultural backgrounds and experience of life are all aspects which can affect the outcome of a person’s decisions, the idea of taking into account both predetermined aspects and free will is known as Soft Determinism. Soft Determinism makes free will and Determinism compatible by considering that some actions are freely made while others are conditioned by causes which are unavoidable.
