Cathedral at Marseilles, France, Library of Congress
In this, the second part of our study, we examine the crucial question of how free, if at all, human choice and action can be. In the philosophical literature, persuasive doctrines range from scientific or hard determinism to complete and radical free will.
In this section, we face some of the main philosophic positions on the free will—determinism issue. The crux of the problem is sometimes related as the dilemma known as Hume's Fork: On the one hand, if my actions are entirely subject to causal laws, then I am not responsible for them anymore than an apple is responsible for falling from a tree.[1] On the other hand, if my actions are not determined then they must be random events, but then in that case also I would not responsible for my actions because specific outcome to a random process cannot be willed or decided upon.
[1] | On this view, an caused event would be the same thing as what is called "a miracle"—i.e., an event without cause or explanation. |
[1] | On this view, an caused event would be the same thing as what is called "a miracle"—i.e., an event without cause or explanation. |