- Human behaviour is unpredictable
- Definitions of free will and determinism
- Determinism as against free will
- The conflict is too crucial & debatable
- Both have their own intricacies
- Absence of struggle an determinism
- Arguments regarding free choice
- Claims of determinism
- Conclusion
Suppose that every event or action has a sufficient cause, which bring that even about. Today, in our sufficient age, this sounds like a reasonable supposition. After all, can you imagine someone seriously claiming that when it rains, or when a plane crashes, or when a business succeeds, here might be no cause for it? Surely, human behaviour is cause. It doesn’t just happen for any reason at all. The types of human behaviour for which are held morally accountable are usually said to be caused by the people who engaged in hat behaviour. People typically cause their own behaviour by making choices; thus, this type of behaviour might be thought to be caused by your own choice- makings. This freedom to make your own choices is free will.
Determinism, a philosophical doctrine against freedom, is the theory stating, physical and mental (including moral choices), are completely determined previously existing causes that preclude free will. This theory denies the element of chance or contingency, as well as the reality of human freedom holding that the “will” is not free but is determined by biological, environmental, social, or mystical imperatives. Since very event in our lives is determined by outside causes, then we are just most sort of robots. Freedom, on the other hand, is rooted behind the idea that we do have control over the choices we make, thus having free will, a requirement for being morally accountable for an action. But if determinism is true, and we have no control over the choices we make, then we do not have free-will; and therefore, nobody can ever legitimately be held morally accountable for anything. Our common practice of thinking of others and over selves as accountable is simply not justified!
There are those who think that our behaviour is a result of free choice, but there are others who presume “we are servants of cosmic destiny or that behaviour is nothing but a reflex of heredity and environment.” The position of determinism is that every even is the necessary outcome of a cause or set of causes, and everything is a consequence of external forces, and such forces produce all that happens. Therefore, according to this statement, man is not free.
If we accept the determinist argument and assume human behaviour as a consequence of external forces rather than of free choice, then we must realize that our explanation of human behaviour leaves no room for morality. If people do not choose their actions, then they are not really responsible for them, and there is no need for praising or blaming them. If determinism were true, then there would be no basis for human effort, for why should a person make an effort if what he or she does doesn’t make a difference” If what will be then one has an excuse for doing nothing. Life would not be so meaningful for people on determinist grounds. Human life, as we know it, would not make much sense without the concept of freedom. In our everyday lives, there are many times when we have to make decisions; what we are going to eat for breakfast, or where we are going to walk. When we talk or write, we are deciding on the arrangement of our thoughts, and we have to search for the right expressions. Our life, while we are awake and active, is a mixture of important and unimportant choices.
Having free will means that we are able to act voluntarily, that we could have decided o act differently than we did. When someone is criticized for looking sloppy, or making and offensive remark, he may try to excuse himself with an “I could not help it” remark. But if he is a normal person mentally, then he could have helped it; he could have acted differently. Many people reject determinism on the grounds that there is no free choice. Philosophers against determinism appeal to direct experience to provide evidence of the existence of free choice. Feelings which we all have, such as regret or remorse, make no sense unless there is free will People experience regret or sorrow only because they believe they could have otherwise. If determinism were true, then people could never have done otherwise and here should be no reason to feel any regret. A determinist may argue that human behaviour is caused by environmental conditions, general trends, circumstances, and social economic forces beyond human effort and will.