Writing an Essay: A Responsive Action sample essay

Contents

1) Abstract.

2) Introduction: The problem of Free Will

3) Critique of Libertarianism.

4) The Programmed Life: the Views of Determinists.

5) Critique of the Soft Determinism: No Compromise.

6) Conclusion: Writing This Paper – a Determined Action.

7) References

Abstract. Humanity was always concerned with the problems of freedom, will, constraints on human actions, and the interdependence of these subjects. It seems that all spheres of human activity relate to these questions. Is the human being an active decision maker or a passive follower of social and psychological prescriptions? This paper examines the questions of free will, constraints of freedom, and causes of human actions. As an example, the paper tries to answer the question, whether writing this essay was a free or a responsive action from the Determinist point of view.

Introduction: The Problem of Free Will. According to encyclopedic definition, the Free will is the philosophical doctrine that holds that our choices are ultimately up to ourselves. Consequently, an action is considered to be “unfree” if it depends on something else. The very definition of the concept is controversial, since it is hard to imagine a real world situation where an action is not dependant on other circumstances. In Philosophy, the question of Free Will is one of the key problems the science attempts to investigate. In regard to this question Tomis Kapitan, a Cambridge philosopher, wrote the following: The free will problem is the problem of the nature of free agency and its relation to the origins and conditions of responsible behavior. For those who contrast 'free' with 'determined,' a central question is whether humans are free in what they do or determined by external events beyond their control. As argued by Kapitan, the question whether one’s responsibility for an action requires that he or she is able to make a relevant decision or free choice, is very important. It is often said that a particular choice “depends on ourselves”; however this phrase is very vague, and that is why it allows a great variety of interpretations. Kapitan proposes that the problem of Free Will immediately directs one’s attention also to such matters as motivation, deliberation, choice, intention, control, etc. In the example of writing this essay, the question of making the choice of writing it would be closely connected to the reasons, motives, and external influences on the student having decided to write the essay, which brings us to the question of determination of those. Simultaneously, Free Will relates very closely to the areas of ethics and morality, while the division of people and actions into moral and immoral, or right and wrong becomes significantly complicated after the concept free/determined appears. If the student fails to write the essay, and this action is judged as wrong, there is a problem, to what degree he should be judged based on how free or determined his action was. The problem, that one can be judged only if one had an alternative for a particular action, is outlined by A.J.Ayer, who claims that: When I am said to have done something of my own free will it is implied that I could have acted otherwise; and it is only when it is believed that I could have acted otherwise that I am held to be morally responsible for what I have done. Thus, if I would have no choice to writing or not writing the essay, any judgment of this action should be excluded. However, there are other philosophers, such as Harry Frankfurt, who argued that any path of reasoning claiming that responsibility requires alternate possibilities will fail because responsibility does not require alternate possibilities.

Critique of Libertarianism. Libertarianism claims that people’s actions are sometimes free. According to this view, an agent is able to resist the influence or intervention from outside the causal order of things. Libertarians believe in the validity of the Free Will concept and reject the opposite opinion, the Determinism, which they claim to be incompatible with the concept of Free Will. The major school of Libertarianism, according to the researcher Chris Tame, is a reassertion of Aristotelian, natural rights and natural law philosophy. According to this point of view, “freedom should be limited only by the duty not to initiate force against others, the concept also known as the “law of equal freedom”. In this view, while deciding on writing this essay is my free will act, how should one evaluate the actions of the professor who assigned this task to me? In this case, the professor limited my freedom by making me perform this particular task. Although, the society does not assume assigning essays an immoral action. Here, I would question the Libertarian views because they ridicule the whole structure of education in this case. The classicist of Libertarianism, C.A, Campbell, claims that "the critical comparison of those acts for which, on due reflection, we deem it proper to attribute moral praise or blame to the agent, with those acts for which, on due reflection, we deem such judgments to be improper". Campbell also proposes that one should be judged for a particular free action only in the case that it is legitimate to assign praise or blame. Campbell states that the Free Will is exactly that kind of freedom which society should use as guideline to legitimate distribution and assignment of moral responsibility. However, it is quite difficult to specify whether freedom is necessary for moral actions. In this case, Campbell differentiates between “inner” and “overt” acts, so that being judged for an action, one must chose an act of the inner self, which means to do something despite the circumstances. This kind of freedom is focused on “inner” acts, as it is believed that it is not sufficient that an agent can choose on performing one of two or more actions, if there are no 'external' forces or constraints acting on the person. Walter Stace formulates the concept of external and internal as the matter of psychological vs. environmental: "Acts freely done are those whose immediate causes are psychological states in the agent… acts not freely done are those whose immediate causes are states of affairs external to the agent." However, this statement does not recognize the fact that psychological factors also determine the person’s action in a definite way. The findings of the modern philosophy have shown that often the person is guided by the psychological imprints from the childhood, just like a computer is guided by the programs. From this perspective, writing this essay was caused by such psychological features as social responsibility, etc. that were formed in the self of the student during childhood time.

From the Libertarian point of view, not only the fact of having written the essay, but also the content of the work would be determined by the Free Will. According to Libertarianism, it was my choice to write about, what to write about, and how to write about. I can not agree with this interpretation because the action of writing this essay as well as its nature was influenced much by different conditions. This brings us closer to the Determinist views.

The Programmed Life: the Views of Determinists. Generally, determinists believe that the present and future are determined by the past actions are merely part of the causal order of things. This means that there is no Free Will, and person’s actions are caused by certain circumstances. Consequently, the action of writing this essay, in determinist view, was a determined responsive action. According to the encyclopedic definition, the Determinists hold that each state of affairs is determined by the states of affairs that preceded it, an extension cause and effect. As it becomes clear, determinism relies on the cause-and-effect principle, as well as on the number of certain determinist laws. This concept is described in the work of Harvard College Fellows: “Certain laws of nature are such that, given a certain past, those laws are compatible with only one subsequent future. Any world with that past but a different future would have to have different laws. We call laws of this sort - deterministic laws.” This concept also means that certain events having taken place in the past require the future to develop in a particular way determined by the past events and by the laws. For example, determinist concept would propose that two students given the same essay instructions and possessing same amount of knowledge, same writing skills, etc. would write exactly same essays.

The group of mostly radically thinking Determinists, such as Holbach, Honderich, and Strawson, propose that determinism is not compatible with free will and moral responsibility – this view is called Hard Determinism. According to Hard Determinism, Determinism has extreme consequences on people’s everyday ideas of freedom, ability to avoid an action, intention, responsibility, judgment, praise, and blame. Determinists claim that all events, including human actions and choices are absolutely determined. In this case, an agent’s action, choice, or a particular circumstance can be one of the following: it may be completely caused; there was a casual necessity for this action to occur; the action was an inevitable response to the preceding action; the action happened according to the universal law of nature, etc. In my opinion, this view is closer to the real world situations. Back to the example of writing this essay, first it, in fact, was completely caused. There was also a sufficient necessity to write the essay. The action was a response to the professor’s assignment, and the way of its conduction falls into the boundaries of certain rules (writing instructions, intellectual property rules, etc.). In Determinist view, the action of writing this paper was caused by the following factors: choice between positive and negative outcome, social influence, and given prescriptions. First of all, I had a choice between getting into a negative (unpleasant) situation, or punishment, if I would have decided not to write the paper. The failed assignment would negatively affect my grade, which would result in disappointment and further difficulties (reduced GPA, danger of failing the course, etc.). Even if the bad grade would not have brought any difficulties in future, the social judgment would result in dissatisfaction. These two factors have determined my choice to write the paper. This choice is quite predictable: the teacher expects to get the works from all of his students, even though late. As proposed by Frankfurt, “The fact that a person could not have avoided doing something is a sufficient condition of his having done it.” Finally, the way and the content of writing were determined by the instructions provided by the professor, resources available, and my personal intelligence abilities. The modern Psychology has brought determinism to the new understanding. Such researchers in the field of experimental and transpersonal psychology, as John Lilly and Timothy Leary, have discovered the idea of Imprints. According to the scientists, Imprints are formed during in the time of imprint vulnerability - childhood or in stress bearing situations, and later determine character traits, ways of thinking, emotional inclination, - or with other words, the whole “internal world” of a person. This means, that decision making, which is made according to the internal psychological context, is fully programmed by the imprints. Timothy Leary, often viewed people as robots, not able to exercise the Free Will: “Guilt, innocence, punishment, forgiveness, law and order, rehabilitation—all constitute the mythology that masks the simple reality of badly-wired robots bumping into one another.” According to Timothy Leary, even the “most agonizing and supposedly intractable” social problems are caused solely by ignorance of the fact that people’s brains are programmed to perform rows of repetitive actions. Leary underlines that all the ideas and notions resulting in person’s actions are created through brainwashing, which is happening all the time.

Critique of the Soft Determinism: No Compromise. The third group of philosophers, attempted to combine the notions of Determinism and Libertarianism. Thus, the defendants of Soft Determinism (also known as Compatibilism) claim that Determinism is true, but propose at the same time that Determinism is quite compatible with the concept of Free Will and moral responsibility. Soft Determinists agree that the Free Will, or acting as one wants, despite external obstacles or constraints is valid. At the same time, they (Soft Determinists) also accept that the real issue is not whether actions are caused, but whether they are caused or prevented by external impediments or constraints. The Soft Determinist would partially agree with both views and would say that I have exercised Free Will in writing this paper, but there was a significant influence on my choice from the external conditions. To my opinion, these two views are not compatible. My “will” to write this essay was guided by social and psychological programs. This “will” is simply the wish to achieve pleasure (good grade, acceptance of the work) and escape suffering (reduced grade, social outism, etc.). Both of the factors are defined by the external environment. Because “acting as one wants” (which is equal to the Free Will) is formed by the external conditions, I assume that all actions of a person are still determined, and one can not find a compromise between Libertarianism and Determinism.

Writing This Paper – a Determined Action. To sum up the concepts described above, the action of writing this essay was a determined responsive action. It was caused by external influence, while as the motivation came from the internal (psychological) context. Assuming the fact that internal context is caused and formed by the external conditions, it is reasonable to propose that the action was more due to the work of certain mechanisms, rather than to the free will. The peculiarities of the action (how the essay was written) were also determined by the external factors (instructions, deadlines, etc.).

Bibliography

1. Thomis Kapitan, The Free Will Problem, The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd Edition

2. Chris R. Tame, Freedom, Responsibility and Justice: The Criminology of the “New Right”, Libertarian Alliance, 1998

3. C.A. Campbell, On Selfhood and Godhood

4. Walter T. Stace "The Problem of Free Will from Religion and the Modern Mind"

5. Harry Frankfurt, "Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility", 1999

6. A.J. Ayer 1996 "Freedom and Necessity" (from the “Reason and Responsibility: Readings in Some Basic Problems of Philosophy”)

7. Ben Best, A Case for Free Will AND Determinism

8. John Lilly, Programming and Metaprogramming of the Human Biocomputer

9. Harvard College President and Fellows, Free Will and Determinism, http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu
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