GSTR 110-B Dr. Jeff Richey
GSTR 110-E Asian Studies/Philosophy & Religion
Writing Seminar I Berea College
Fall 2006 Jeffrey_Richey@berea.edu
FREEDOM AND DETERMINISM
Who is in control of my life?
“I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”
-- William Earnest Henley (1849-1903)
If I answer, “No one and nothing,” then I am a believer in free will – the ability of rational agents
to control their actions. Yet I can will freely without necessarily enjoying freedom of action.
Tomorrow, I may will to mow the grass, but be unable to actualize my will because it will rain.
“Wherever the fates lead us, let us follow.”
-- Virgil (70-19 BCE)
If I answer, “Someone or something,” then I am a believer in determinism – the inability
(partially or wholly) of human agents to control their actions due to non-human forces or
personalities. But the nature of these non-human forces or personalities can be defined in many
different ways:
• Natural or supernatural
• Impersonal or personal
• Random or purposeful
• Completely knowable, partially knowable, or unknowable
• Immune to human influence or subject to human influence
Depending on my view of determinism, I might be a compatibilist (one who holds that some
kind of free will is compatible with some kind of determinism) or an incompatibilist (one who
holds that no kind of free will is compatible with any kind of determinism). There are at least
three types of determinism:
“Que sera, sera / Whatever will be, will be.”
– Jay Livingston (1915-2001)
Logical determinism is the view that what is going to happen in the future will indeed happen
and cannot be avoided. Tomorrow, it either will or won’t rain; logically, one of these statements
must be true, and the other false – one of them will occur and one of them won’t. Yet this form of
determinism doesn’t hold that we can know which of these events will in fact occur; in this sense,
precise future events are not yet determined – it is only the case that there will be future events.
LOGICAL DETERMINISM
Major premise – Every event either will or won’t occur in the future.
Minor premise – Every human action is an event.
Conclusion – Therefore, every human action either will or won’t occur in the future.
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