Causal Determinsim Essay -- Philosophy

Causal determinism is the concept that preceding causes give rise to everything which exists such that existence could be nothing but what it is. Science depends on this idea as it aims to find generalisations about the conjunction of certain causes and effects and thus hold approximately power of prediction about their future co-occurrence. However, in human inter feat people assume each other to be responsible for their acts and not only when at the whim of causal laws. So the question which troubles philosophers is whether causation dictates entirely the course of human action or whether we as agents possess some shrive bequeath. I will argue that free will is an inescapable illusion of the mind, something which never did nor ever could exist under causal determinism.Compatiblists propose that free will and determinism coexist while to incompatibilists that would be impossible. If we are to decide for ourselves then firstly we must establish the meanings of causal determini sm and freedom of the will. Proponents of causal determinism contend that1.Every solvent has a cause2.Human actions constitute a sort of event3.Thus every human action has a cause4.Every action ever executed is nothing more than an inevitable consequence of the preceding conditions in the universeSo if causal determinism is true humans lack each capacity to choose or to will as nothing could ever be other than it is. (McFee. 2000, p. 21)Free will is a far more tough notion. However authors seem to agree on a few aspects of it. In his paper Has the Self Free Will? Campbell suggests that an effective free will is confined to the domain of moral decisions. He asserts that to exercise free will an agent must be sole author of an act, not simply yieldin... ...scapable illusion of the mind. as well to how Strawson argues the truth of determinism would not make agents any less morally accountable, I believe the falseness of free will does not detract from its usefulness in clarifyi ng our mental narratives and explaining the origins of our actions.Works CitedFischer, J.M. (Ed.). (2005). Free Will Critical Concepts of school of thought. Abingdon Routledge.McFee, G. (2000). Free Will. Teddington Acumen Publishing.Perry, J., Bratman, M. & Fischer, J.M. (2010). Introduction to Philosophy Classical and Contemporary Readings. (5th ed.). New York Oxford University Press.Perry, J., Bratman, M. & Fischer, J.M. 1998). Introduction to Philosophy Classical and Contemporary Readings. (3rd ed.). New York Oxford University Press.Campbell, C.A. (1957) On Selfhood and Godhood, London George, Allen & Unwin.