Determinism vs. Free Will
Determinism vs. Free Will
Determinism vs. Free Will
Jordan Mulonas
COM 295
Section 3
Prof. Harmsen
Determinism and free will are two different ideas. Both are very important to
consider. One is neither right nor wrong necessarily, but they are different ideas. Depending
on a person’s beliefs, they may favor one idea over the other.
Determinism is the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately
determined by causes external to the will. Hard determinism is the belief that all events are
causes by past events such that nothing other than what does occur could occur.
Free will is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action
unimpeded. Libertarian free will is the belief that humans’ actions are freely chosen. Free
will is an action that is free only if the person making the decision could have chosen another
option.
There are different theories to keep in mind when thinking about determinism verses
free will. Event causation says that no physical event can occur without having been causes
by a previous physical event. Agent causation is the theory that a person can starts a chain
of causality that was not caused by anything else. Reductionism is the theory that all parts
of the world and all experiences can. Be traced back to a singular thing.
Philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have
no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions. Free will is closely
linked to the concepts of responsibility, praise, guilt, sin and other judgements which apply
With these concepts and important theories kept in mind, the earth must revolve
around either determinism or free will. They cannot mutually exist. I believe that the earth
must revolve around determinism, for the reasoning that everything is based off of prior
events.
Thinking about the reductionism theory, everything can be traced back to a single
event. When waking up in the morning and a person thinks “I will have cereal for breakfast
today”, this may seem like a choice of free will but subconsciously this is related back to
prior events. The person may have a tie to cereal, or maybe they dreamed about cereal the
night before, or they saw a commercial that made them crave cereal. The person may not
even notice there are outside forces causing their decision. Therefor free will is an illusion
that humans think that they have, but without knowing or understanding, every event or
choice that they have is traced back and caused by past events.
Although it seems that the earth must revolve around determinism, some people do
not agree. Some people a firm-believers in free will. This is important to keep in mind when
similarities in people. We learn to respect individualism and the idea that there are many
Lastly, there is no right or wrong. Determinism seems to be true to some people, and
free will seems to be true to others. The key to understanding this topic is that we need to
learn to respect each person’s opinion, their choices ,and their beliefs.