Melissa Tkacs

Blog Post 3

Free Will Debate

Within the debate of Libertarianism versus determinism, Libertarians believe that we have free will while determinists do not. Liberationists believe that we have free will that sprouts from two different places, spontaneous free will, which comes from our internal emotions and what we are feeling and also external free will that comes from us making decisions based on the world and what is around us.

Determinists on the other hand believe that us as humans have no free will. There are two types of determinists, however both of their ideals end up in the same reasoning that everything in our life has came preprogrammed and decided for us, basically saying that we lack any type of freedom. Regular Determinists believe exactly that; we have no choice in what is going on around us because everything happens as it is going to be planned out. Then Soft Determinists, otherwise known, as Compatibilists believe that we do have a sort of redefined meaning of free will. Their definition states that we have free will to choose what we do, but since all of our feelings and emotions are preprogrammed into our minds, that we really don’t have a choice in what we would do anyway.

I do not think that it is justified for the Soft Determinists to redefine the terms of what “free will” actually is. Free will means that we have the choice to da what we want to do when we want to do it. Furthermore also I do not think that it is plausible that we do not have free will. Not having free will takes away the morality of all situations, because if we had all of these predetermined notions in out head of what to do, why should anyone be punished for what we are doing.

I believe in the fact that all humans have free will. Although we the spontaneity of free will may seem mysterious at times, I believe that we as humans are even mysterious at times. We have all of these emotions and feelings for people and other things that happen in our lives. It would seem, as life was worthless to live if everything was already predetermined for us. Also I believe in a God whom has give us free will, the power to choose what we want to do for us. If there was no free will and one didn’t believe in a God or higher being, then who would be determining what is happening for us? Or vice versa, if there were a God who is predetermining every single move for us, why would he predetermine some of us humans not to believe in him? Or why would we be punished for doing bad things when God has already chosen them? Therefore, the way I see it is that there really is no possible way for us not to have free will.

The theory of Libertarianism has more explanatory breadth that either of the Determinist views. Libertarianism better explains where a human’s behavior would come from. The libertarian view shows that humans act because of the emotions they are feeling and the external forces that are acting on them. While the determinist view cannot account for why we would act other than us acting because we are programmed to.

The libertarian views also explain in more detail why we would act in saying that we act on our own because of our feelings and beliefs, while the Determinist view can only offer to us that we are acting because our fate is predetermined. The Determinist view fails to tell us where our actions come from and why they are predetermined.

Determinists do however have a little more simplicity on their side. However, this is only because their idea of where our actions fail to tell us anything more than just the fast that our lives are predetermined. This is simple because if one believes in this, it would be saying that our lives just simply do not mean anything because everything is already planned out for us. The determinist view by being so simple denies any purpose of life and shows that anything complex that has been accomplished was really just meaningless because everything that is still undiscovered has actually just already been discovered for us; we are just like a book waiting to be read.

The Libertarian ideals also have the most conservatism. I believe that most people agree that we have free will and reject the fact that we would in a way be a slave to the ways of thinking everything was predetermined.

1.                    Libertarianism, Determinism and Compatibilism are most plausible explanations of human behavior.

2.                    Libertarianism has much more explanatory breadth, explanatory depth and conservatism while theories Determinism and Compatibilism only have more simplicity.

3.                    Therefore, Libertarianism is the best explanation of human behavior.