Why does Galen Strawson think free will is impossible Do you agree Why or why not - Essay Example

Insert Introduction A British philosopher and literary critic, Galen John Strawson (b. 1952) has contributed prolifically to metaphysics and the study of mind. Strawson believes that free will is not possible. Thesis statement Galen Strawson held that whether determinism is true or otherwise, moral responsibility is provably impossible. Strawson’s argument against free will begins with the discussions on the concept of free will and its meaning. According to Strawson, there is a fundamental sense of the phrase free, yet there are several extents to which the word is false or construed falsely.

Strawson is categorical that understanding the word free is important since from it ensue concepts such as free agents and accountability. Strawson argues that the word free is elusive and nearly inapplicable since feelings, beliefs, practices and attitudes that color the manner in which the world is conceived and interacted with and therefore extensively affect the way people as free agents conduct themselves. Strawson defines freedom in terms of moral responsibility as the capability of being truly responsible for personal actions (Strawson, 16).

Again, Strawson is of the persuasion that since feelings, beliefs, practices and attitudes affect man’s choices and actions, they inform the experience people have and being responsible. This affects the manner in which people make choices in light of rewards and punishment since rewards and punishment are forces and tokens of socialization and acculturization. In other words, rewards and punishment are ways by which a society expresses approval or disapproval on an act or a choice, or the consequences of the same.

Counter-objections to Strawson’s Arguments There are philosophers who have counter-argued Strawson’s standpoint on the dismissal and definition of freedom. These philosophers are categorical that Strawson fails to define the freedom that is in question and that Strawson fails to state whether the freedom is real, imagined or a property that almost all adult human persons [at least in the West] believe to possess. The crux of the matter herein is that to say that one does not understand what freedom really is, is to be bereft of the most basic understanding of the society that one belongs to and this claim is therefore untenable.

Simply put, the charge is that freedom is something whose comprehension is easily grasped and that Strawson is therefore engaging in semantics. Response to objections to Strawson’s argumentsWorks Cited Strawson, Galen. Freedom and Resentment and other Essays. London: OUP, 1974. Print