声音简介
Quick-raise your right arm! Did you do it?Whether or not you raised your right arm just now was up to you. This seems like a perfect example of free will-being able to choose whether you do something or don't. But many things go into every choice you make. One is your physical being. For example, if you had no eyes to read this page, you would never have even thought about raising your arm just now. Another is your environment. Were you taught to do as you're told? Were you taught to be suspicious of bossy people? These things may affect your choices more than you realize.
Determinists, such as the twentieth- century American psychologist B. F. SKINNER, insist that every choice we make is determined by things we can't control. Our choices seem free only because we're not aware of these things. Chipmunks look like they're thinking about burying acorns in the yard. But they are actually doing these things because instinct tells them to. Skinner believed humans are the same and that they don't have free will.
Libertarians, such as the twentieth-century English phi- losopher C. A. CAMPBELL, argue that human beings do have free will. If we weren't free to choose between good and evil actions, then we couldn't be held responsible. If Hilda throws a rock at her brother, should we just shrug and say her action was beyond her control? No. She could have chosen not to throw the rock.
Libertarians, such as the twentieth-century English philosopher C. A. CAMPBELL, argue that human beings do have free will. If we weren't free to choose between good and evil actions, then we couldn't be held responsible. If Hilda throws a rock at her brother, should we just shrug and say her action was beyond her control? No. She could have chosen not to throw the rock.
Compatibilists, such as the present-day American philosopher SUSAN WOLF, say that all our choices are determined and yet some of them are within our control. Maybe Hilda threw a rock at her brother because he threw one at her yesterday. Her personality wouldn't let her do otherwise. But we can still consider her free since she wasn't forced to throw the rock, but chose to.
Seventeenth-century English philosopher THOMAS HOBBES was a compatibilist. He believed human beings are just complex animals. Like all animals, we have needs-food, shelter, and reproduction. If we lived in nature, apart from society, we would selfishly fight for what we need. We would live short, lonely lives filled with violence. Since we are more intelligent than other animals, we figured out that it's better to cooperate. Civilization is based on an agreement to obey rules so we don't have to fight. But this doesn't change the fact that we sometimes want to follow our own desires. Hobbes believed we are free to act on our desires, but not against them. When we make choices, our strongest desire always wins.
Twentieth-century French philosopher JEAN-PAUL SARTRE was a libertarian. He noticed that science explains objects by identifying their essence, or nature. For example, the essence of a cup is to hold liquid and the essence of a chipmunk is to be a striped rodent. He argued that science will never fully define human beings, because we're each born without an essence. We create our own essence through our choices. This act of creation is completely free because it's not caused by anything. While we may be shaped by factors beyond our control, we are not determined by them. We have free will. There is no limit to who or what human beings can become.
THINK ON IT!
Picture a donkey standing between two piles of hay. The donkey's desire for the pile on the left is perfectly balanced by her desire for the pile on the right. Will she starve to death? According to the determinist, she will, because all action is caused by desire. Her desires are exactly tied. What would happen to you in a similar situation? Could you use free will, or something else, to break the tie?
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