Free Human Beings Have No Free Will Essay Example

Definition

1 (a) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2010) defines free will as the capacity in rational agents to choose a course of action from among many alternatives. Rene Descartes in Meditation V notes that the freedom of choice is in the ability to choose to do or not do a particular thing.
(a) Determinism
According to determinism, human actions are caused by natural laws and any actions against such is absurd (Benjamin Libet, n.d).

Human have no control of the past (“Free will and Scientiphicalism,” n.d)

Humans cannot control natural occurrences like sunshine, rain, gravity
Human live within the laws of nature, etc.
(b) Indeterminism

Indeterminism holds that human beings act from their own will.

Humans can control forces of nature e.g. temperature

Regulate flow of rivers

Flatten mountains, etc.
Inconsistencies
(a) Deterministic inconsistencies

Humans may control what they want to do and hence, determinism would not be true

Humans can actively modify their environment against the forces of nature using technology
(b) Indeterminist inconsistencies
Human actions are naturally limited by forces of nature. For examples, the choice to modulate the temperature occurs due to the prior existence of temperature. Hence, even when humans make the choices, such choices are a reaction to forces of nature and hence, one cannot claim to have free will.
There are still many forces of nature that compromise human actions. For example, Cures to Cancer, HIV, and other diseases are yet to be found.
Human do not create force, they transform it and hence, the choice is tied to the pre-existence of the forces.

Works cited

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Free Will. 2010. PDF. Accessed from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill/ on February 11, 2015.
Benjamin Libet. Do We Have Free Will? PDF. Journal of Consciousness studies. Accessed from http://www.centenary.edu/attachments/philosophy/aizawa/courses/intros2009/libetjcs199 9.pdf on February 11, 2015
Free will and Scientiphicalism. PDF. Accessed from http://philosophy.fas.nyu.edu/docs/IO/1179/freewill.pdf on February 11, 2015.