Free Will Not An Illusion

Free will is not an illusion

Since the beginning of historical writings, many philosophers have pondered on the concept of free will. The struggle with the concept has ranged between, man deciding any action through the will he has to the hard determinist thinking of causal agents being the cause of man’s actions and thus having no free will. This paper will seek to critically discuss that free will is indeed not an illusion. By examining the arguments of the philosophers made by O’Connor (2002) and Sartre (1946) and conversely the arguments of the opposing compatibilists McKenna, Michael and Coates (2015), I will argue that to exist before free will is utilised, makes free will no illusion at all. While the later philosophers will argue that

If the moral code is taken out of the concept, how can one say what makes any action as bad or good. Would not all actions then be perceived as neither and one is then just doing what one wills. The will of a man then comes into question. Sartre (1946) commented on Descartes notion of the will of a man is drawn from the experiences and understandings after conception. No man is born without feelings, emotions or with a blank brain. Therefore, whilst the brain, as it is developing subconscious decisions and actions according to experiences, has as neuroscience now knows, an innate ability to connect the world as each day progresses. Given the environment the child grows up in, determines the outlook of the child as it becomes a rational

Strawson, as stated by O’Connor (2016), asserted that the concept of free will was not coherent with the world as we know it. Studies conducted through neuroscience and psychology have tried to map the relation of brain activity with behaviour (McKenna et al., 2015). The scientists interpreted the results as that human’s ability to initiate their own will to action is just an illusion. This interpretation is also under much scrutiny and there is no clear consensus on these claims. I believe that the search will be continued for many years to come and no agreement will be