Leading theories of free will - Essay Example

Free will has been described as; having the ability to make decisions or choices, devoid any kind of limitations. As such, anybody who desires to make a decision out of free will, should not be influenced by any external forces or interferences whilst making such a decision (Kim et al, 2009). However, in reality, this is not often the case. Most decisions people make out of free will are, often based on some kind of influence, either from personal preferences or external interference. It is for this reason that hard determinism best describes the concept of free will.

Hard determinism, as described earlier, claims that free will is inexistence. This is true because while it affirms to the philosophy of determinism, it does not agree that it is compatible with free will. It is next to impossible for one to make a free will without determinism and at the same time carry the belief that determinism affects free will, as claimed by compatibilists. A case in point is a situation where one needs to be morally accountable. It is agreed that most institutions or nations have certain morally guiding principles.

In such a situation, one is expected to choose from two options; the moral option or the immoral stand. In the case of libertarianism, one should not be held morally accountable if he or she chooses the ‘immoral’ option since it supports free will, devoid of external or internal influences. It is for this reason that hard determinism comes into place and justifies the need to act ‘morally’ since that choice is influenced by a deterministic factor. The application of hard determinism can be justified through creation of ethical standards to correct wrong doers in a society.

If everyone had the free will to do anything that they deem logical, then criminal behavior and other vices in society could be justified. It is for this very same reason that there exist standards to regulate human behavior to act according certain prescribed code of conduct (Kim, et al, 2009 p 47). This means that no one has the free will, like in the case of libertarianism or Compatibilism, to