Assignment: Free Will Philosophy Essay

Essay on Free Will

It seems to each of us that we have free will. But it is worth considering: is there any potential fact about the universe that, if it were true, it would show we do not have free will? Causal determinism is the claim that it is a fact that every event is caused, determined, and necessitated by events that came before it. [Note: Do not confuse casual determinism with hard determinism.]

Many philosophers and others have said that it seems, at least at first glance, that causal determinism is incompatible with free will, generating the so-called “problem of free will.” Attempts to solve the problem of free will often involve offering competing intuitive definitions of the concept “free will” as in, “What do we mean when we say ‘free will’?”

Use Vaughn and definitely use my two downloadable PDF lecture notes. I encourage you to even follow the outline from one of those PDFs.

Explain causal determinism and the theories of hard determinism, libertarianism, and compatibilism. What are the arguments for and against hard determinism, for and against libertarianism and for and against compatibilism? Which view has the best argument(s) in its favor? And what, according to the view you think has the best argument(s) in its favor, is the definition of free will?

Quote from at one source verbatim and cite it and give full bibliographic info in a references section at the end according to APA style.  No APA style abstracts though.

The Problem of Free Will and Causal Determinism Lecture Notes by David Frost, PhD The philosophical problem of free will is the apparent incompatibility of Causal Determinism and our intuitive notion of free will. Definition of Causal Determinism: An “ism” or theory that claims that every event has a cause, or that the universe is law-governed. For instance, if you rewind the events of the universe and then play it forward again, all the exactly same things would happen all over again provided the initial conditions were unchanged. There are three different theories regarding the compatibility of free will and Causal Determinism, including Hard Determinism (not to be confused Causal Determinism), Libertarianism and Compatibilism. Hard Determinism is the view that Causal Determinism and free will are incompatible, and that further Causal Determinism is true and free will false. According to HD, we have no FW. Libertarianism is the view that Causal Determinism and free will are incompatible but that it is Causal Determinism that is false and free will is true. According to LIB, we have FW. (But, you should ask yourself, in virtue of what?) Compatiblism allows that human acts are causally determined but argues that Causal Determinism does not rule out freedom and responsibility.

So, according to Compatiblism, humans are caused yet can be free and responsible; human actions that are free are caused, but caused in the right way, say by me and not someone else. Notice that CD is an “ism” about the way the universe is; it says every event has a cause. CD says absolutely nothing on its own about FW. HD is an “ism” about the relation of FW and CD. It’s the extra thing that you might think was in CD all along but I’m saying is separate. Notice, also, that HD and LIB have something in common. They both think that CD and FW are incompatible. (For this reason, elsewhere I have referred to Hard Determinism as Incompatiblist Hard Determinism, and Libertarianism as Incompatiblist Libertarianism.) COMP disagrees with them both and thinks that CD and FW are indeed compatible (just how is tricky; it amounts to saying that there is not a problem of free will while admitting that CD is true; see my handout on Ayer’s Compatiblism). Finally, as an exercise, think along the following lines to yourself: I. II. III. Causal Determinism a. What it is b. Why believe it c. Why disbelieve it Hard Determinism a. What it is b. Argument for it c. Argument against it Libertarianism 1 IV. a. What it is b. Argument for it c. Argument against it Compatiblism a. What it is b. Argument for it c. Argument against it 2 Handout on the Competing Compatibilisms of Ayer and Frankfurt I.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource