Free Will. What is Free Will and do we have it - Essay Example

If one chooses to rob the bank, then he or she should be ready to take the responsibility for the action. These actions are in one way or the other is determined by free will. This paper will discuss free will, determinism and compatibilism. It will also depict whether or not we have free will. Free will is also a philosophical term used to choose an action to various alternatives. When one act in a way that depicts free will, one satisfies metaphysical requirements by being responsible for your own action, whereby there are also alternatives to one’s action and moral significance.

Free will significance is not exhausted by its moral responsibility, but a condition of one’s accomplishments, dignity of persons and value, all accumulates to free will (Campbell 65). Determinism is where the facts about the past in the law of nature have the truth about the future. So given the past having the law of nature, only one future is possible at any one time. Those who say free will is a freedom from determinism make them incompatibilist. Those who say free will is without reference of determinism automatically qualify them as compatibilists.

Compatibilism is not merely the claim that some events (e.g. actions) are free, and some events are determined. This is consistent with indeterminism. Rather, compatibilism is the stronger thesis that the very same act may be both free and fully determined. Incompatibilism is the denial of compatibilism. Compatibilism, incompatibilism, and free will skepticism come in various forms. Hard determinists are incompatibilists who endorse determinism but deny the free will thesis, so they are also free will skeptics.

Libertarians are incompatibilists who deny determinism and endorse the free will thesis. Soft determinists are compatibilists who accept both determinism and the free will thesis. Developments in physics, specifically in quantum mechanics, have led many to reject determinism, so examples of soft and hard determinism are rare though not impossible. A better classification of the three main contemporary views is libertarianism, compatibilism, and free will skepticism (Campbell, 127). Philosophers look at the freedom of will and freedom of action because one's success depends on factors beyond one's control, and there are external constraints on options we undertake which is not one's responsibility.

As a conceptual matter, free will depicts a subset of willing, but not all philosophers accept that. According to Campbell, freedom of will is by its nature and never constrained (Campbell 121). Majority of people view a will as not free indeed debates about it centers on if human beings has it. The main threats to freedom of will become evident on physical, psychological, biological and theological determinants. For every determinism, there are philosophers who deny reality on either independent grounds or free will, there those who accept reality and deny its compatibility with free will or argue its compatibility.

In actual sense, free will has many dimensions; it can be a choice on one’s desire in that it can be selected as a way of fulfilling desire. According to the will Joseph Campbell defines liberty as “power of acting or not acting”. Free will relates to desires and values, which include the ability to judge what is worth pursuing, and evaluating them though satisfying them can be hard for us. We act with free will when we consider the judgment this may seem restrictive because many people are held responsible for their actions.

There are two theories of free will that rely on possible actions; there are people who get motivated to choose to act by desires and secondly a person’