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Freedom and Determinism
How can we be free in a world of causes?
George Matthews
Spring 2016

Everything that
happens has a cause.
We are often free
to choose to do one
thing or another.
If I am caused to do
something I am not
free to do otherwise.

Each of these claims
seems to be true on its
own, but can they all be
true at the same time?
Everything that
We are often free
to choose to do one
thing or another.
something I am not

Everything that
We are often free
to choose to do one
thing or another.
False
something I am not
The Hard Determinist
accepts that these two claims are
true, and so denies that we are free.

Everything that
False
We are often free
to choose to do one
thing or another.
something I am not
The Libertarian accepts that
these two claims are true and
so denies that everything we
do is caused by prior events.

Everything that
We are often free
to choose to do one
thing or another.
something I am not
free to do otherwise.False
The Compatibilist accepts that
these two claims are true, and denies
that being free and being caused
are really opposed to each other.

Everything that
We are often free
to choose to do one
thing or another.
something I am not
The philosophical problem of freedom is the problem of
showing which of these positions is true and thus
what we have to give up: freedom, universal causation or
the opposition between the two.
? ?
?

What’s at stake . . .
Freedom is important.

! Our lives seem to be a series of real choices.

! We hold people responsible for their actions and
this requires that those actions are free.

! We hold people responsible for their actions and
this requires that those actions are free.
! If we are not free, life would be meaningless.

Freedom is mysterious.

! Whatever happens seems to have a cause.

! Explaining anything involves spelling out what
caused it to happen.

! Explaining anything involves spelling out what
caused it to happen.
! As science progresses, more of our behavior can
be explained and so less and less of it seems to be
a matter of free choices.

determinism
Baron D’Holbach
1723 – 1789
Man’s life is a line that
nature commands him
to describe upon the
surface of the earth,
without his ever being
able to swerve from it.

determinism
! Determinism is based on the idea that whatever
happens must have a cause.

determinism
! Thus our feeling that we make free choices is just
a result of our ignorance of the real causes of our
actions.

determinism
! Thus our feeling that we make free choices is just
a result of our ignorance of the real causes of our
actions.
! But if determinism is true, why argue about it –
aren’t our responses to the arguments in favor of
it already determined?

libertarianism
William James
1842 – 1910
Of two alternative futures
which we conceive, both may
now be really possible; and
the one become impossible
only at that very moment
when the other excludes it by
becoming real itself.

libertarianism
! Libertarians defend our common sense conception
of ourselves as free agents.

libertarianism
! We feel like we are making choices freely and are
not being caused to do one thing or another.

libertarianism
! But can we trust our feelings about the causes of
our actions?

libertarianism
! But can we trust our feelings about the causes of
our actions?
! Doesn’t science often violate common sense and
show us the hidden causes of things?

compatibilism
W.T. Stace
1886 – 1967
Acts freely done are those
whose immediate causes are
psychological state in the
agent. Acts not freely done
are those whose immediate
causes are states of aﬀairs
external to the agent.

compatibilism
! Perhaps free acts are not uncaused acts, but acts
caused by the right kinds of causes.

compatibilism
! Free acts are autonomous – a result of our
deliberate attempts to govern ourselves and not
by swayed by outside inﬂuences.

compatibilism
! Free acts are autonomous – a result of our
deliberate attempts to govern ourselves and not
by swayed by outside inﬂuences.
! But what if we fail to live up to the standard of
acting autonomously, is this fact caused by
something outside of our control?

compare and contrast
! Acting freely can be contrasted with being
coerced.
! Only someone who is autonomous or
self-governing is free in this sense.

I’m not going to work because
I quit.

I quit.
I got ﬁred.

I quit.
I got ﬁred.
We are free to leave a job because it doesn’t suit
our well-considered plans, but given the role of
bosses in our society, getting ﬁred leaves us with
no say in the matter.

I gave some money to the
charity because I wanted to
help.

help.
I gave some money to the man
who pointed a gun at me.

help.
I gave some money to the man
who pointed a gun at me.
Threats of force are ways of coercing us by pre-
senting us with oﬀers we cannot reasonably refuse
while acts of charity are our own choices, unless we
are swayed by heavy handed emotional appeals.

I take drugs because I want to
relax after a long day at work.

I take drugs because I am
hopelessly addicted and I can’t
stop myself.

I take drugs because I am
hopelessly addicted and I can’t
stop myself.
Addictions push us to do things that we often later
regret and compel us to act against our own best
interests. Responsible use of drugs or alcohol ﬁts
in with our larger goals and self-image.

existentialism and freedom
Jean Paul Sartre
1905 – 1980
Freedom is what you
do with what’s been
done to you.

! Existentialism is a philosophical standpoint
focused on our experience of our own lives.

! It downplays metaphysical questions about the
nature of things and emphasizes the predicament
and dilemmas we ﬁnd ourselves in – knowing we
are going to die and that it is up to us what
meaning our lives have.

! It downplays metaphysical questions about the
nature of things and emphasizes the predicament
and dilemmas we ﬁnd ourselves in – knowing we
are going to die and that it is up to us what
meaning our lives have.
! Freedom for existentialists is built in to the
human condition – even the refusal to choose is
something we are responsible for.

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