Do People Have Free Will?

April Adams Philosophy 105

Free Will Or Predetermined?

As a child I was told by my parents that everyone has free will that God does exist and is all knowing but He gave us free will to make our own choices. As I have grown older I have wondered if that was true. If God is all knowing and is already aware of what decisions human beings will make before they make them, is that free will?How can an outcome already be known if the decision has yet to be made?Is what people call free will pre-determined or reactionary?

Dualism

This view holds that what exists is either physical or mental (“spiritual”); some things, such as a human person, have both a physical component (a physical body) and a mental component (a mind).

Materialism

(or physicalism) This view holds that only the physical exists. Accordingly, so-called mental things are in some sense manifestations of an underlying physical reality. (Not to be confused metaphysical materialism with the doctrine that the most important thing is to live comfortably and acquire wealth.)

Idealism

This view holds that only the mental (or “spiritual”) exists. Accordingly, so-called physical things are in some sense manifestations of the mind or of thought.

Thomas Hobbes

• (1588-1679) viewed perception or sense as a precipice to thinking. Because a human being is able to reason and therefore decide, this is a form of free will.

Olivia Sabuco de Nantes

• (1562-?) believed that” the properties of the mind are not physical properties” therefore, the soul “governs the affects, movements and actions of humans”. She argued that the connection between body and soul occurs throughout the brain.

Rene Descartes

(1596-1650) felt he established metaphysical dualism. He figured that because the “mind is not in space and doesn’t move, is not subject to physical laws, therefore it is free” and thus allows humans to have free will. 

Benedict de Spinoza

1632-1677) felt that “free will was an

illusion”. He felt that all things were controlled or predetermined by the Laws of Physics and everything that has happened and will happen is determined by what has already happened beforehand.

Anne Finch, The Viscountess Conway(Anne Conway)

(1631-1679) believed that God has always existed and because God created everything, everything is God’s property. Since it could not exist without God, there must not be free will. It is the will of God.

Gottfried Wilhelm, Baron von Leibniz

(1646–1716) There is a sufficient reason for every occurrence, it follows that there is something outside the series of events that is its own sufficient reason. This “something outside,” is God. God is a sufficient reason for God’s own existence, God is a necessary being, therefore nothing exists without God.

Free Will vs. Pre-determined?

•There is in my opinion such a thing as Free Will.•Just as there are actions and reactions, such is the same to free will. God, being omnipotent sees all.•The first time free will was exhibited on record was in the story of Adams and Eve.

References

• Bruder, K., & Moore, B. N. (2008). Philosophy: The power of ideas (7th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.• All Pictures by Google Images