Sunday, November 2, 2014

Free Will Debate


I do not believe there is spontaneous free will. Therefore my belief is one that falls under the category of a determinist. A determinist claims that all of our actions are generated by external causes such as the physical world or the environment in which one was raised. The opposing view to this is one of the Libertarians who believe that some of our actions are generated by spontaneous free will and some of them are generated by external causes. Basically the argument is whether everything we do is of our choosing or if we do it because of external influences. I believe in the view of the determinists because I believe that free will is just a figment of the human imagination. Everything we do is not due to free will parse but rather all our actions are a result of the influence of our environments. The course of our lives is controlled by the decisions we make, we make those decisions with the information given to us through previous experiences. We will choose whatever we find suitable or that pleases us.

The explanatory breadth of the belief of the determinists explains the entire spectrum of human behavior. Every action we do can be held accountable for the determinists’ theory. I believe Libertarians fail in this area because they believe that some human actions are through spontaneous free will, they fail because it pretty hard to prove the existence of free will and as of right now it also isn’t possible.

In regards to explanatory depth determinists prevail once again. Even if free will were to exist it wouldn’t explain human behavior in greater detail than the determinist’s standpoint. Every action we do can be related to an experience and then another experience. This can explain and detail the cause for our actions in immense detail.

The determinists stand out exceptionally well in the simplicity category. They do not make the assumption that free will exists. The libertarians due and if they didn’t then they would just be determinists and this debate wouldn’t exist.

The libertarian viewpoint is however more current in regards to conservatism. People like to think they have free will and when told they do not get rather upset. The idea that you can do whatever you want is rather huge today.

1.      Hard determinism, soft determinism, and libertarianism    are the most plausible explanations of the ultimate cause of human action.

2.      Hard determinism has much more explanatory breadth, explanatory depth, and simplicity, whereas Libertarianism has more in regards to conservatism.

3.      Therefore, determinism is the best explanation of the ultimate cause of human action.

2 comments:

  1. I disagree with you in terms of explanatory breadth. Libertarianism does a lot better job of explaining human behavior. Libertarians believe that humans act based on both free will and external causes. Hard determinism does not consider morals. Humans act based on what they feel is right and wrong. Because hard determinism does not address this, libertarianism does a better job in explaining human behavior.

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  2. While i undertsand your point of why you you beileve in determinism I must disagree with you saying that determinism has more explanatory depth and breadth than libertarianism. Determinist only cover one aspect of human behavior but while libertarianism covers more than one. Thusly they cover a larger spectrum, going more indepth into human behavior. Determinst do not cover a larger spectrum than Libertarianism because determinist does not explain behaviors that are not caused by external causes while libertarianism does.

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