Free will or knowledge
Free will is about the ability to act at one’s own choice. Some consider free will to be the capacity to make choices in which past events have not determined the outcome. Free Will is also closely related to the concepts of duty, praise, guilt, wrongdoing, and other opinions and activities that are freely taken. There have been questions regarding free will for age, and it has been debated among the philosophers, and their arguments are varied. There are many theories regarding the free will, but I am going to discuss the determinism which is the opposite of free will and is defined as the belief that says that our behavior and experiences are pre-determined by intrinsic and external components. While it can be easy to believe in determinism over a free will or vice versa, I think the concept of soft-determinism provides a middle ground that bridges the two concepts.
There are two sides to determinism, hard and soft determinism. Hard Determinism or metaphysical determinism is the belief that human behavior and actions are entirely determined by external factors. So humans do not have valid free will or moral responsibility. There are several other supporting views for the idea, which comprise philosophical determinism, psychological determinism, theological determinism, and scientific determinism. Soft determinism contradicts the Hard determinism and its compatibilist form of determinism, which holds the view that free will exist despite determinism. It further opposes another metaphysical libertarianism, the other primary form of incompatibilism, which holds that free will exists, and determinism is false.
There are some life choices that we do not have any control over on them-which are determined by external factors such as when, where, and how we are born, the family affiliation, childhood, and even getting into the world ware not defined by us. However, some other essential choices are totally up to us regarding our future, and we have free will of choosing. Looking back into my life when I chose to go to school/college and get a college degree, which will impact my future positively and will enable me to get the desired job and as a result, I will have a comfortable and happy life. Here in this scenario, the choice I have made without any restriction or external/internal force is compatible with soft determinism, which had proven that free will exists. Determinism is true because all choices about birth were not in my control. Yet, there were still choices I specifically made about my life.
Nevertheless, there are still abundant problems exist on this side of the line, hard determinism, regarding free will. Some may argue that it is hard to distinguish between the internal and external factors since. One may argue that someone persuading you to do something is an external factor, while your choice of taking that action is internal and comes from within. It can be argued too that the internal decision of taking that action is also shaped by their desires, which in turn are determined by their past external experiences, personality traits, or even their childhood. For example, “an epileptic person who has a seizure and knocks precious vase to the floor.the epileptic person, in this case, does not decide to knock over the vase. Indeed the movements are not the result of any decision.they are random movement triggered by the seizure”( Stich & Donaldson 2019). So the action was not free because his illness triggered it and therefore he should not be blamed for it. However, the choices they epilectic person makes after the incident is within their free will. Therefore, this example shows that even though determinism is true, it should be realized that soft determinism is the concept to be applied here because the person does have the liberty of free will in response to the determined factor of their disease.
In conclusion, some actions are pre-determined in our life according to the determinism, but there is always the middle ground exists where we can make choices based on the free will. Soft-determinism creates a bridge between free will and determinism and explains the way our lives appear out of our control but also provide us with specific moments to choose our destinies. My life was pre-determined in the time and place I was born; I cannot say I would have chose those specific factors given the choice. However, I had the freedom to choose how I pursued my education, my career, and where I chose to live. The concept of soft-determinism allows me to explain how I made these choices but I am still unable to control what happens to me caused by external factors.
Work Cited
Stich, Stephen P., and Tom Donaldson. Philosophy: Asking Questions–Seeking Answers. Oxford University Press, 2019.