Free Will: Determinism

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Free Will – Determinism Nothing is taken more for granted than the freedom of choice. It is the most overlooked aspect of humanity, yet it is impossible to truly live without it. Individuals want the freedom to do what he or she wants, when he or she wants to. Without freedom of choice, humans give up one of the key aspects of humanity. Lewis Vaughn explains the free will problem in Philosophy Here and Now as, “The problem of free will is the challenge of reconciling determinism with our intuitions or ideas about personal freedom,” (Vaughn 230). Vaughn describes determinism as, “The doctrine that every event is determined or necessitated by preceding events and the laws of nature,” (Vaughn 229). The free will problem is practically contesting …show more content…

Lewis Vaughn describes, “Determinism and free will are incompatible doctrines; they both cannot be true,” (Vaughn 231). Vaughn is describing hard determinism, a version of determinism where every action that has happened or will happen has been determined by prior actions. Under incompatibilism no individual acts freely. One of the issues with hard determinism and incompatibilism are molecular interactions in science. The chances of having every single molecular interaction being predetermined is impossible due to sheer randomness. Determinism poses a solution to this issue with …show more content…

Lewis Vaughn explain that in compatibilism, “It is possible for every event to be caused by preceding events plus the laws of nature—and for [individual’s] to still act freely,” (Vaughn 232). Vaughn further explains that in traditional compatibilism an action is free if it is fueled by an individual’s own choices and desires and it is not impeded or constrained by anything. If a person desires to get coffee, he or she will get coffee as long as there is no obstruction to getting the coffee. A person has free will in this situation. Another possible solution to the free will problem that a compatibilist would present is the idea of alternate realities or universes. In an alternate universe a choice an individual has made could have been made differently. With this solution, every interaction that had different outcomes would have a universe for every possible

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