One Way of Arguing Determinism is False

Are we free?

The question of our freedom is one that many people take for granted. However, if we consider it more closely it can be questioned. The thesis of determinism is the view that every event or happening has a cause, and that causes guarantee their effects. Therefore given a cause, the event must occur and couldn’t occur in any other way than it did. Whereas, the thesis of freewill is the view that as human beings, regardless of a cause, we could have acted or willed to act differently than we did. Determinism therefore, states that the future is something that is fixed and events can only occur in one way, while freewill leaves the future open. Obviously a huge problem arises between these two theses. They cannot both be true as they contradict one another. In this essay I hope to find a solution to this problem.

One way I could solve the problem is by denying one of the theses is true. I will begin by trying to prove that determinism is false. One way of arguing that determinism is false is to use science. Developments in quantum theory can show this, i.e. many scientists argue when we look at things from a quantum level, determinism is false, because particles at this level behave without cause, in a purely random manner. They are indeterministic. Indeterminism is the view that given the present state of the universe, the future is not fixed and that some events do not have causes, rather they are uncaused or that sometimes causes are not sufficient enough to bring about their effects. The problem with this argument is the fact that while indeterminism may be true of the quantum world; this doesn’t prove that it is also true of the macro physical world. For example; in the macro physical world a table may be brown,...

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...ent. I cannot prove that either determinism or freewill is false and therefore I hope to have shown that the compatibilist theory is the most logical and that both determinism and freewill can co-exist on some level.

“All that is certain about the matter is: (1) that, if we have free will, it must be true, in some sense, that we sometimes could have done what we did not do; and (2) that, if everything is caused, it must be true, in some sense, that we never could have done, what we did not do.” ( Moore: 1912: pg 90)

Works Cited

Appiah, KA. 2003. Thinking it through an introduction to comtemporary philosophy. Oxford university press, Inc . 198 Madison Avenue, New York 100016.

DJ O Connor – www.vernonpratt.com/pill8/pill8determinism5.htm

Macdonald, CA. 2010. Determinism and freewill. Unpublished.

Moore, G.E. 1912. Ethics . OUP, New York Edition