Libertarianism: The Case for Free Will and Its Incompatibili

             This passage by Roderick M. Chisholm discusses how human beings are responsible agents and that this fact conflicts with the deterministic view of human action and also conflicts with an indeterministic view of human action. It argues the Libertarian/Indeterministic and Deterministic views of circumstances and events that take place as to why they did or did not happen. The Libertarian argues that "humans are free and personally responsible for what they do, where human freedom and personal responsibility rule out causal determinism." (Velasquez) While, the determinists argue that "all events and actions are causally determined by previous events and the laws of nature, where causal determinism rules out human freedom and personal responsibility." (Velasquez). It discusses how if an agent is responsible for something, then at some point in time he had the choice whether to perform or not to perform the act. It also discusses that if an agent's action was caused from some state or event for which the agent himself was not responsible, then the agent himself is not responsible for what we called its act. This passage also discussed other philosophical views such at the compatibilism view.
             One man shot another. At the time of the shooting, whether to shoot or not to shoot was
             entirely up to the man shooting. There was a moment where the man shooting could have fired the shot or he could have refrained from firing the shot. And even if he did fire the shot, he could have done something else instead, it was not "against his will". Also, if he is responsible for the shooting of another man, some act of his brought about that state of affairs or event and in this act he had the option to do it or not to. Hence, the man was responsible for his action.
             However, this is not valid because if shooting the man was an act that was in his power not to perform, then the event was not in his power to bring ab...

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Libertarianism: The Case for Free Will and Its Incompatibili. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 22:38, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/5800.html