Quick questions on Free will, determinism and compatibilism: QCE Philosophy and Reason

Hard determinism accepts determinism and concludes that free will is an illusion. Since our choices are fully caused by factors ultimately outside our control (genes, upbringing, brain states), we could never have done otherwise, so no one is truly free or morally responsible. This challenges retributive punishment and desert-based praise and blame. The cost is that it conflicts sharply with our experience of deliberating and choosing.

Libertarianism (not the political view) holds that we do have free will and therefore determinism is false, at least for human choices. Some libertarians locate freedom in an undetermined act of the will or agent-causation, where the self originates an action not fully fixed by prior causes. Strength: it preserves robust responsibility and matches the felt openness of choice. Objection: an undetermined choice can look merely random, and randomness is no more free than determinism; this is the "luck" problem.

A powerful argument against compatibilism (set out by Peter van Inwagen): if determinism is true, our acts are consequences of the laws of nature and events before we were born; but we cannot change the laws or the distant past; so we cannot change the fact that our acts occur. Hence, if determinism is true, we are not free in the sense of being able to do otherwise.

Compatibilism denies the conflict: free will and determinism are compatible. It redefines freedom not as uncaused action but as acting according to one's own desires without external compulsion. David Hume argued that freedom is just the absence of constraint: a person acts freely when they act from their own will, even if that will is itself caused. Harry Frankfurt refined this: a person is free when their action flows from desires they endorse at a higher level (a "second-order" desire), distinguishing a willing agent from an addict who acts against their own deeper wishes.

The debate matters because responsibility seems to require freedom. If hard determinism is right, praise, blame and retributive punishment may be unjustified, though we might keep punishment for forward-looking reasons (deterrence, reform). Compatibilists argue responsibility survives because what matters is whether the act flowed from the agent's own reasons-responsive will. Recent neuroscience (often citing Libet-style experiments suggesting the brain initiates action before conscious awareness) is sometimes taken to support hard determinism, though the interpretation is heavily contested.

Distinguish hard determinism, libertarianism and compatibilism. [4 marks]

Explain the luck objection to libertarianism. [3 marks]

Explain how compatibilism preserves moral responsibility. [3 marks]