Freedom/Free Will and Moral Responsiblity : A Reality or an Illusion?





Are we free or are we determined. Does being free held us accountable for our actions?  
Free will is a man's capacity to rationalise to be able to choose to act the way he wants to, moral responsibility is when he is accountable and responsible for his own actions. According Moya (2006.p.01) when it comes to moral responsibility; he argues that, " the property of human agents by virtue of which they are truly and objectively deserve moral praise or blame for some of their actions". Some argue that, there is not a sceptical challenge on this property. And free will is when free agents are who are the main actors who determine their own actions; in this way a man is held accountable and responsible for any action he does since he acts in his own accord-in all, "freedom is a necessary condition for moral responsibility (Moya.,2006.p.01). However, there is a scepticism on the notion that; having a free will and being morally responsible is impossible. 

Improbability of Moral Responsibility

 Sceptics of moral responsibility claim that moral responsibility is impossible whether determinism is true or not (French, Wettstein and Fischer, 2005.p.13). There an agreement that responsibility so conceived is impossible. It goes on to say that, nothing can be the cause of itself; so for a man to be truly responsible for his actions, he would have to be the cause[…] “therefore nothing can be truly responsible” (French, Wettstein and Fischer, 2005.p.13 ). Due that for him to be accountable for his actions, it would have to be one, who is of  free-actions, which are up to the agent (French et al., 2005.p.14). “And the free actions that are the ground of one’s responsibility must be rational actions, at least in the sense that they are performed for reasons, even if not for very good reasons” (French et al.,2005.p.14). 

 
If a person does for an occasion, he does what he does since of the way he mentally in some respect. Hence if what he does when he acts for an occasion is to be up to him; then how he is mentally in some respect, must be up to him. In order that he is responsible for how he is mentally in that respect (French et al., 2005.p.14).This might mean if one has a choice on what he does. There should be no determinism in a sense. For each man to be morally responsible for an action of his, that should occur if only he could have done otherwise, in in all determinism rules out alternative possibilities (Moya., 2006.p.10).  Strawson (1995.p.05) state that whether determinism is true or not it does not matter, mankind cannot be ultimately responsible their actions.   

Determinism and Alternative Possiblities

 



By Siya Manci, 19th July 2017

 Reference Lists

Moya, C.J.2006. Moral Responsibility: the ways of scepticism. Routledge.
French,P.A, Wettstein, H.K and Fischer, J.M.2005. Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Blackwell Publishing. Midwest Studies in Philosophy, Vol XXIX.
Strawson, G.1995. The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility. Springer. Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, Vol. 75, No. 1/2, Free Will, Determinism, and Moral Responsibility (Aug. 1994), pp.5-24:https://philosophy.as.uky.edu/sites/default/files/The%20Impossibility%20of%20Moral%20Responsibility%20-%20Galen%20Strawson.pdf

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