Free Will and Determinism

(Metaphysics)

CUET PG – Philosophy (Notes)

Free Will

• Free Will refers to the capacity of rational agents to choose a course of action among alternatives.

• The question of free will relates directly to issues of moral responsibility, determinism, and causal necessity.

• Ancient Greek philosophy contains early discussions of free will. Aristotle wrote about voluntary and involuntary actions, emphasizing intention and choice as central to moral evaluation.

• Epicurus argued that atomic “swerves” (clinamen) introduced indeterminacy, making room for free will.

• Stoics like Chrysippus proposed a compatibilist view, maintaining that human actions are predetermined by fate yet still voluntary if they arise from internal assent.

• Augustine of Hippo in early Christian thought emphasized free will as necessary for sin and grace, arguing that humans have free choice but require divine assistance to do good.

• Thomas Aquinas synthesized Aristotelian philosophy and Christianity, describing free will as the rational appetite—the will is moved by the intellect, yet it retains freedom to choose among perceived goods.

• In modern philosophy, René Descartes saw the will as infinite, even if human understanding is finite.

• Baruch Spinoza denied free will, claiming that all things, including human decisions, are determined by God’s nature and causal necessity.

• Thomas Hobbes defined freedom as the absence of external impediments, laying groundwork for compatibilist positions.

• David Hume defended compatibilism by arguing that freedom means actions flow from one’s character and desires, even if causally determined.

• Immanuel Kant distinguished between the phenomenal world (deterministic) and noumenal world (free), positing that moral responsibility depends on transcendental freedom.

• Arthur Schopenhauer argued that humans can do what they will, but they cannot will what they will, highlighting a deterministic view of the will’s origins.

• In 19th-century philosophy, Friedrich Nietzsche rejected metaphysical free will, viewing it as a psychological construct useful for moral judgment.

• William James argued for pragmatist indeterminism, claiming that some decisions are not predetermined and that this underpins moral responsibility.

• Contemporary analytic philosophy debates free will primarily in terms of compatibilism vs. incompatibilism:

  • Compatibilism holds that determinism and free will are compatible.

  • Incompatibilism claims that if determinism is true, free will cannot exist.

• Libertarianism (in metaphysics) is the view that some human actions are free in a way that requires indeterminism.

• Hard determinism denies free will entirely, asserting that causal determinism governs all actions.

• Peter van Inwagen developed the Consequence Argument, stating that if determinism is true, then humans have no power over the consequences of past events and laws of nature.

• Harry Frankfurt introduced the idea of hierarchical compatibilism, arguing that freedom consists in acting on desires with which one identifies (second-order volitions).

• Robert Kane defends a libertarian view that self-forming actions are undetermined and form the basis for moral responsibility.

• The debate often examines causal determinism, the thesis that every event is necessitated by preceding events and laws of nature.

• Indeterminism holds that not all events are causally determined, sometimes citing quantum mechanics as a possible source of genuine randomness.

• Critics of indeterminism argue that randomness does not create meaningful freedom, because uncaused events are arbitrary.

• The Principle of Alternative Possibilities (PAP) holds that moral responsibility requires that a person could have done otherwise.

• Frankfurt cases attempt to show that moral responsibility can exist without alternative possibilities, challenging PAP.

• Reactive attitudes, as described by P.F. Strawson, suggest that interpersonal relationships and practices of praise and blame presuppose a kind of freedom, independent of metaphysical determinism.

• Experimental philosophy studies public intuitions about free will and moral responsibility using surveys and cognitive science methods.

• Neuroscience, including experiments by Benjamin Libet, has raised questions by suggesting that brain activity precedes conscious decisions.

• Libet’s experiments showed readiness potentials in the brain hundreds of milliseconds before subjects reported deciding to act.

• Some philosophers argue that these findings challenge conscious free will, while others reply that conscious veto (“free won’t”) remains intact.

• Daniel Dennett defends a compatibilist account, proposing that free will is a kind of evolved self-control and rational responsiveness.

• Galen Strawson argues for hard incompatibilism, holding that no agent is ultimately morally responsible because they cannot create themselves.

• Susan Wolf proposed the notion of “reason-responsive” compatibilism, where free will requires the capacity to recognize and act on reasons.

• Derk Pereboom defends hard incompatibilism, suggesting that determinism and indeterminism both undermine moral responsibility.

• Freedom of action (doing what one wants) and freedom of will (wanting what one wants) are often distinguished in analytic philosophy.

• Existentialist philosophy, especially Jean-Paul Sartre, insists that humans are radically free and responsible for creating meaning through choice.

• Sartre declared that “existence precedes essence,” implying that people define themselves through acts of will.

• Religious traditions have various positions on free will:

  • Christianity often maintains that divine omniscience and providence are compatible with free will (compatibilism).

  • Islamic theology debates between Qadar (predestination) and free choice.

  • Hindu philosophy includes ideas of karma and free will, emphasizing moral agency within cosmic law.

• The problem of foreknowledge and free will argues that if God knows the future, then human freedom is compromised.

• Boethius, in The Consolation of Philosophy, argued that God’s knowledge is eternal (outside of time), and thus does not necessitate human actions.

• Free will remains a central topic in metaphysics, ethics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of religion.

• Debates continue over whether compatibilism is merely a semantic redefinition of freedom or a substantive account.

• Many philosophers agree that the stakes of the debate include moral responsibility, punishment, agency, and personal identity.