Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Free Will

Free will is the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one's own discretion. Well there are two sides to free will, libertarianism and hard determinism. There is a big difference between libertarians and determinists.  Libertarianism means that human beings have the ability to control and change their own actions because we have free will. While determinist argue that human beings do not have free will or the ability to control their own actions.

I believe that libertarianism makes more sense. I believe that all human beings should have free will. I agree that as humans we make our own decisions and we can decide what it is we want to do and wish not to do with our lives. We have the ability to control our own actions and change the course of our lives based upon what we want as individuals. As a child we were all taught what’s right and what’s wrong but as we grew we were given the free will to choose whether or not we would go along with any set rules put before us. Therefore, libertarianism is more plausible.

Exploratory Breadth: Libertarianism explains human actions better than hard determinists do. They believe that some behaviors are caused by free will and other behaviors are caused by external forces. Determinist believe that everything is predetermined for us and that everyone doesn’t have the ability to make decisions for themselves. Therefore, libertarianism explains explanatory breadth better then determinism

For explanatory depth, libertarianism has the upper hand. Libertarianism explains that not all actions are made just by choice. A great example of this would be when the man stole bread for his family. The man explained that they were hungry but had no food. On the other hand a determinist would reason that they were forced.

Conservatism of both libertarianism and determinism is really based on your own personal beliefs and how you choose to look at free will.

1. Libertarianism, and determinism are the most plausible explanations of human behavior.
2. Libertarianism has much more explanatory breadth and conservatism, whereas determinism has a little more explanatory depth, and simplicity.

3. Therefore, libertarianism is the best explanation of the ultimate causes of human behavior.

2 comments:

  1. I agree with what you were saying but not entirely, about us being free and having complete control of our lives. Some kids and families are born into poverty and horrible conditions that one could never wish upon someone having. Some kids from a young age are taught how to use a gun and since they don't know better they think it's normal and are limited to knowing about the world, so they think they're the good guys and are probably lied to from a very young age and then next thing you know they are terrorists. Since birth they were born into this live, with probably the choice and free will of what gun to use, how to shoot but not much control of where they can go with their lives.

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  2. Very good post; the only thing I would edit do your post is that when you say, " I believe that all human beings should have free will" you should say, "In fact all human beings have free will" because the way you say it is as if we currently do not own free will but should have it.

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