Argumentative Essay On Free Will

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Free will is a problem that has been occupying the minds of many philosophers. The classical debate is whether we have free will or we are determined and therefore free will in an illusion. There are many views that philosophers have brought to the table in order to tackle this debate. Some of which are determinism, libertarianism, and compatibilism. Harry Frankfurt’s general intake on the debate is that free will is not about having the ability to do otherwise. Instead, free will is about having the ability to make judgements about our desires. The purpose of this paper is to expound and asses Harry Frankfurt’s semi-compatibilist view, his concept of a person, and how it relates to the freedom of the will. The traditional compatibilist view claims that determinism, every action has a prior cause, is compatible with free will. This means that even if our actions and choices are determined by the laws of the universe, there …show more content…

The distinction between second order desires and second order volitions can be difficult to grasp, but I shall present my best interpretations of Frankfurt’s readings. Second order volitions are judgements that we make about our desires. One last time, suppose person A is on a diet so he admits a firm resolution about his diet. So he thinks (I should want X) or (I should want to not X). Person A thinks he should want to not eat dessert in his new diet resolution. In saying this, person A is placing a valued judgement about his desires. He is someone who is not just letting his desires pull him one way or another. He is placing a valued and examined judgement about which one of his desires is the desire he wants to constitute his will. In saying “I should want to not eat dessert”, he is saying that there is an important sense in which wanting to not eat dessert more accurately characterizes who he stands for and what his values

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