Michelle Michaels

Gregory B. Spendlove

Intro to Philosophy 1000-403

12 April 2018

Position Paper

I’m going to write my Position Paper on the topic, “Are physical determinism and

meaningful human existence compatible?” or in other words can we live a meaningful life

without having the ability of free will. Living a meaningful life and having the ability of free will

have nothing to do with each other. How do we come to this conclusion? First we need to look at

what the terms mean.

What does it mean to have free will? In the article “The Determinism and Freedom

Philosophy”, it states that when we use the term “free will” we usually think of the phrase in the

sense of having freedom that is voluntariness. In other words, we could say that we are free just

in case we are making an unforced choice, we have the ability to do otherwise, and we’re

blameworthy for the action. An example of this is when someone does drugs. They have the

freedom to take the drugs or not at first but if they continue to do them, they become addicted.

Once the victim becomes a slave to the drug and is fighting against not wanting to take the drug

but at the same time needing it, they no longer have free will in that situation. When someone

becomes addicted to something, free will in any situation in their life becomes compromised

because more and more of your life is taken over and are no longer in your control.
 One might ask if there is such a thing as physical determinism and what it has to do with

free will. In the article, “Free will”, it brings up the question “Does determinism imply that there

is no free will?” Determinism is the idea that life was “thought or planned out” before we even

came into existence. Does this mean that we don’t have free will? To me this means that there is

a thought or planned out but it is like a road map and once we reach a certain point and make a

certain decision, the other choice is gone. This would mean that we do have free will but once we

make a decision, we get the results for that decision. In the article, “The Information

Philosopher”, it states that “there is of course an adequate determinism in the macroscopic world

that explains the appearance of deterministic laws of nature, of cause and effect for example”.

This is like the drug example. We make a choice and have free will in making that choice up to

the point that the victim gets addicted but we can’t do one thing and expect a different result so

at that point we are stuck with those consequences of our previous decision. To conclude this

portion, yes we do have free will even in the case that determinism exists.

Going back to the other half of the original question, what does it mean to live a

meaningful life? It means exactly what the words imply, that there is some sort of meaning to

your life. You’re not just blowing through life, but you have a goal, a purpose. Whether or not

you are or have lived a meaningful life depends on each person’s view of themselves. There is no

set list of guidelines you need to follow to meet the criteria and be able to say that your life had

meaning. If you feel you have lived the best life possible with whatever situation you’re in, then

your life was meaningful. If you feel internally that you failed in some sort of way and didn’t

make a difference for yourself or in anyone else’s life, then one could say their life wasn’t

meaningful. It all comes down to how you view yourself and your life. Living a meaningful life
isn’t about money, fame, or other materialistic things; it’s about finding your passion and

running with it. It’s about making the most out of any situation you’re in.

In the article, “What is free will?” it states that, “We sense our will to be fully free, but

science says every action is determined by a prior action.” In the article, “Free Will”, it states

that it is a, “philosophical term of art for a particular sort of capacity of rational agents to choose

a course of action from among various alternatives.” This goes to show that we really don’t

know exactly what free will is. We want to say that we are free or that we are in control of our

bodies but when you really look into it, everything seems to be dependent on what you did in the

past. You can look at it as was described in a previous paragraph as life being a path with a

bunch of forks and you have free will. But in this case are you necessarily free? You set out on a

path and you only get the freedom to make choices on your current path. You reach a fork in

your path every now and then but once you make that decision the other path is gone forever. Or

you can look at this as you not having the ability to act freely because, again, honestly,

everything is dependent on a previous decision. This has even been proven scientifically. I think

most people just fall back on the idea that, yes we are free but for every decision there are certain

consequences and if we are going to make that decision then we will need to deal with the

consequence, whatever that may be. This idea helps us to feel like we have some sort of control

over what goes on in our life and it’s what makes sense. If we didn’t have control of what goes

on then why would anyone be “blamed” for anything? You can’t blame or punish someone if

they didn’t have an option to do otherwise, or in other words, were forced to do that with which

you are trying to punish them for. This is the whole definition of what “free will” is in the first

place.
 When it comes down to it, everyone is as free as they let themselves believe they are. If

you constantly tell yourself that someone else is to blame for what is happening in your life and

never take responsibility for your actions, you will forever be a slave to that person. If you

constantly tell yourself that you’re a certain way because of your past, you will forever be a slave

to your past. Yes, we start out on a path but along that path we come to “forks in the road” and

can make a decision to either continue on that path or set out in a different direction. This is

completely different than asking if you’ve lived a meaningful life. Both are determined within

yourself, but determining if you have free will or not is dependent on how you view the world.

Determining if you’ve lived a meaningful life is dependent on how you view yourself and the

choices you make. You can live a meaningful life whether you have free will or not. They are not

dependent on each other.

Citations

“Free Will.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 29 Oct. 2010,

plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill/.

Honderich, Ted. THE DETERMINISM AND FREEDOM PHILOSOPHY WEBSITE.

www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/dfwIntroIndex.htm.

The Information Philosopher. www.informationphilosopher.com.

Timpe, Kevin. “Free Will.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, www.iep.utm.edu/freewill/.

“What Is Free Will? .” Consciousness, www.closertotruth.com/topics/consciousness/free-will.