Free Will & Determinism

• Free Will


  - human beings' actions and behaviour stem from their autonomy (the ability to make decisions for themselves)

  
  

  - external factors can influence our behaviour but we are still able to reject if we wish
• Determinism


  - human actions and behaviour are the result of external factors rather than the individual's will

  
  

  - this makes behaviour somewhat fixed and predictable
• Hard Determinism


  - also referred to as 'fatalism'

  
  

  - all human behaviour has a cause (internal or external factors) and are somewhat identifiable

  
  

  - therefore free will is an illusion
• Soft Determinism


  - a compromise position between free will and hard determinism

  
  

  - behaviour may be predictable/determined to an extent but there is still personal choice from a limited range of possibilities

  
  

  - there is ultimately a causal explanation, but we may not have access to it so it's ultimately irrelevant

  
  

  - the question is 'How much is determined?'

  
  

  - different scientific approaches disagree about how much is determined
• Biological Determinism


  - behaviour is cause by biological influences (hormonal, genetic and evolutionary) that are outside of out control
• Environmental Determinism


  - behaviour is the result of influences in our environment

  
  

  - human actions are conditioned and 'choice' is simply the sum of of reinforcement contingencies
• Psychic Determinism


  - a psychodynamic concept

  
  

  - human behaviour is caused by unconscious psychodynamic conflicts (repressed trauma, unresolved psychosexual stages etc.)
• Practical Value: Strength


  - free will has practical value

  
  

  - thinking we exercise free will has mental health benefits

  
  

  - (Robert et al, 2000) found teenagers with a fatalistic perspective were more likely to develop depression

  
  

  - even if we do not have free will believe we do may have a positive effect on our mind and behaviour
• Research Evidence: Limitation


  - brain scan evidence supports determinism but not free will

  
  

  - (Libet et al, 1983) instructed participants to flick their wrist while he measured brain activity (readiness potential)

  
  

  - participants had to say when they felt the conscious desire to move

  
  

  - scans showed unconscious brain activity occurred around ½ a second before the participant felt they had decided to move

  
  

  - meaning even our most basic experiences of free will are actually determined in our brain before we are aware of them
• Research Evidence: Counterpoint


  - just because the action came before the conscious awareness of the decision to act doesn't mean there was no decision to act - it just took time to reach the consciousness

  
  

  - our conscious awareness of a the decision is simple a read-out of our unconscious decision making
• The Law: Limitation


  - the hard determinist stance is not consistent with our legal system

  
  

  - offenders are considered to have free will and are held responsible for their actions

  
  

  - this diverges from the deterministic stance that individual choice is not the cause of behaviour

  
  

  - suggests that in the real world determinist arguments do not work