VL3 Free Will or not?

free will and personal responsibility exist

• they say freedom is impossible because:

• freedom that is tied to full autonomy

• full autonomy —> person is the full cause of their actions

• this definition leads to two demands that contradict one another

  • autonomy and authorship

no free will -> no responsibility is a fallacy

• person + brain are responsible for the decision

• example: tumor patient & easily aggressive person

  • just because we cannot measure why they are easily aggressive -> easily aggressive is not more responsible for their action

• determined by multitude of variables

• part of them brought into consciousness —> not control which ones

• only conscious arguments are weighed and decision made

• unconscious decisions: explanations seem nonsensical but make us feel good

1. how we were raised

2. possibilities we were born with

3. environmental aspects

4. structures & neural circuits

—> what we do is consequence of state of our brain directly before we do it

—> only some of these variables are under our conscious control!

• not important if someone killed out of free will or unfortunate external influences

• person that kills is dangerous

• has to be locked away or receive therapy

1. Autonomy (otherwise decision is forced) —> independency of all initial conditions

2. Authorship —> dependency on initial conditions regarding the actor

—> contradiction: SUBJECT THAT IS FREE FROM THEIR EXPERIENCE WISHES ETC CANNOT BE INITIATOR OF A DECISION

Not sufficient to cause action:

• external factors

• combination of external factors that make action necessary

• prior history

  • action dispositions that were freely chosen before would not violate autonomy

  • BUT in strict view: influence of action dispositions —> no autonomy

tendencies to act in a certain way

• autonomy means action is also free of time

  • free of personal beliefs

  • free of action dispositions

• must be able to result differently under identical conditions every time —> independency of past decisions

• independent of chance

• internal moments must be necessary & sufficient

• requires dependency on initial conditions, past decisions, action dispositions

• a subject free of experience,wishes etc. —> cannot be initiator of a decision

= personal self-determination

• consciously perceived conformity with intentions, beliefs, character traits

• question is not if decision is determined but by whom!

Person has to be able to

• modify their wish

• postpone wish

• decide for different outcome

• external or unconscious factors make decision for you

• actions restricted by external forces and inhibitors

Singer says responsible is the person that acted. That is the mere criteria

• capacity for insight

  • responsible if you act out of conscious personal self-determination

• ability to control actions

  • responsible if you could have stopped actions due to self-consciously controlled processes

responsible: free action, conscious wishes & beliefs have to be corrected

no responsibility: not free, criteria like psychological disorders & external forces need to be corrected