Gabrielle Pierre-Louis

Philosophy - 100

Prof. Rex

Blog 3

Free Will Debate

As some people say there are always two sides or more to something’s. As in free will there are two sides, which are Libertarianism and Hard Determinism.  Libertarianism means when human beings have free will – the ability to control and change our actions. Libertarianism is saying that our actions happen by choice. Hard Determinism means human beings lack of free will, i.e., spontaneity, because all events are causes by earlier psychological or physical events. Consequently, Hard Determinism is saying that human beings are not morally responsible for their actions. So our actions are pre-programmed, so something’s that we do aren’t fault.

In debate I side with libertarianism because it can explain how human behave, compared to determinism. I believe that a lot of our actions happen because of our decisions in life. For example in the reading about Free Will, when Gandhi fasted for a week it was his own choice to do so – compared to the prisoner who got beat up to sign a paper that was against his own will. Gandhi had a choice to go for a week without eating where as the prisoner didn’t have a choice.  In life I believe that things aren’t preprogrammed as determinists thinks, because at times we make our choices base on events that happened to us.

Libertarianism has more explanatory breadth because it covers more on why people did what they did. They always try to find the cause on why people did what they did. For example if someone commit a crime, like stealing or killing. Most of the time when you ask why did they commit these crimes, usually they have reasons on why they did so. Like a robber who robs someone’s purse or the bank, they’ll say because they needed money. They stole on their own, it was there decision to commit a crime that resolve in consequences.

Determinism has more explanatory depth, because it explains why human behave the way they do better than libertarianism. Determinism explains why people become the way they are, and they go back to there childhood. Looking back on their childhood Determinists go more in depth on how our environment, society and media shaped our minds to think and act the way we do. Libertarianism says that we have free will, but doesn’t give us the reason on why we think the way we do.

Determinism is more simplistic because it only has one cause of our actions being preprogrammed. Where as libertarianism is more complex and giving our two reasons on free will and innate actions.

For conservatism they’re equal, it all depends on the person. Some people are religious seeing things way different then philosophers or there beliefs. Some believe our actions happen because of our environment, the way we grew up or even the media. Others believe that things happen because of our life experience or even the decisions we made in the past.

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 human behavior.