Free Will Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Free Will - Essay Example He argues that though indeterminism and freewill are incompatible, human being’s ‘self-forming’ or libertarian actions are essentially the result of freewill. Therefore, they are morally responsible for their actions. Unlike Kane, Derek Pereboom argues that both determinism and libertarianism are incompatible with freewill. Indeed, he remains agnostic about the truth of determinism. But he argues that whether determinism is true or not, freewill is incompatible with it. So, human being should learn to live without freewill. Yet the incompatibility of freewill with determinism does not imply that man is free from moral responsibility. Since, according to him, an agent’s action is either the result of causal determinism (self-forming action) or the manipulation of some external power, in both cases, the agent will remain responsible for his action. It is because though freewill does not exist, man’s action (even though the agent is tricked, by some ext ernal power to perform that action) will seem to be caused by his freewill. In fact, Kane has an impulsive tendency to argue against â€Å"compatibilism† on the ground that man will never be able to learn whether his ‘will’ is determined by some other power or not. Therefore, the question about the compatibility of Freewill and determinism is absurd. Referring to Frazier’s perception of Skinner’s â€Å"Walden Two†, he says that â€Å"the deeper freedom of the will is an illusion in the first place. We do not have it anyway† (Kane 427). This assertion has two meanings simultaneously: first, it can be assumed that he attempts to says that man does not freewill, since it is an illusion. Secondly, it can be assumed that since the concept of freewill is an illusion, man is free to act according to what he calls his will. Kane calls this freedom of man to act on his own at some particular moment as ‘libertarianism’. Indeed, he believes in the agent’s mundane power