Shan Ali Shah

18110023

SS:100

Dr. Aamna Khalid

“Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free

will” -Jawaharlal Nehru

Humans have been living on earth for several centuries. Every day they perform different

activities. Some hold the belief that they have free will and thus have the capacity of choosing a

course of action from among various alternatives. While others hold the belief that life is

determined and therefore their actions are inevitable and they cannot act differently. Those who

support free will think that there are many possible choices and one of them is chosen whereas

those who support determinism think that there is no difference between the possible and actual.

Problem arises when one thinks that whether an action took place due to one’s own free will or

was his/her action already determined. For example, I was provided fifteen topics to write an

essay but I chose this one so was it because of my free will that I chose to write an essay on this

topic or was it determined that I was going to write an essay on this topic. The case of free will

surely makes more logical sense, though my decision was restricted to fifteen options, I still had

the free will to choose any one of the fifteen possibilities. In life everyone usually encounters

many possible choices and always goes for the one which he/she thinks is best for him/her.

Although many believe that all behavior is determined and can be predicted by finding causes

and their effects, however, individuals have free will as they have the ability to make their own
decisions and choices in life, are held accountable for their actions and can shape the direction of

their lives through hard work.

Free will seems to exist as humans are constantly faced with making decisions based on

the different choices available to them. In life every one faces the need to make decisions.

Usually there are many possible choices present to choose from. Nearly all the possible choices

are weighed according to the benefit they provide and only the best amongst them is chosen. So

it does seem human beings are free to some extent because whenever they are confronted with a

choice, their options are somewhat open and it seems it is up to them to choose any one of them.

People spend a lot of time in comparing the choices they can make due to the belief that they

possess control over their actions. Which does seem logical otherwise what would be the point in

assessing the present choices if they did not consider themselves to be free to take decisions

regarding their own life? As Satre said, “Life is a series of choice points, and at each choice

point, you could have chosen differently than you did” (qtd. in Baumesiter 15). He implies very

nicely that a person always chooses to do or not to do something with the belief that it is up to

him/her to decide his act. Though the actions one performs will always be subject to certain

constraints but as long as choices exist and one can take decisions, the idea of being free will

always seem reasonable.

It does appear that free will exists because people are honored and punished for the

actions they perform. The idea behind holding someone accountable for his/her doings is known

as “moral responsibility”. A person is held morally responsible for an action on the assumption

that he/her had the control over the happening of an act and it was that person’s decision to either

perform an act or not. But if the act was already determined then the person cannot be held

morally responsible for that act. Since we are held responsible for doing an act it means we are
free to perform it. For example, a person is punished for murdering or raping someone because

he/she chose to murder/rape the victim. But if the murder was already determined to occur than

the convict should not be punished as the murder took place due to forces beyond his control.

The criminal justice system also rests on the concept of moral responsibility that a person is free

to perform any action and can be held accountable for doing it otherwise there would be no need

for a justice system if all actions were determined. Sometimes there are instances when it is not

up to the person to control the occurrence of an action but usually it is a person’s free will that

causes an action and makes him/her responsible for it.

It looks like free will exists because one can shape the direction of one’s life by hard

work. A person is told to work hard since his childhood. Parents and teachers both advise a child

to put his best in order to achieve better grades. They insist on working hard due to the fact that

they believe that the child may be able to accomplish a good lively hood in his future. The

concept of hard work conflicts with determinism in the sense that if the life or future of a person

is determined or predestined than one should not need to hard work because his efforts would

have no effect on his future. For example, if one does not focus on his studies and ends up failing

a course. In this situation is the person to blame as he/she did not work hard or was the grade

already determined and his/her efforts would have no effects on the future. But it is generally

observed that the odds of achieving a good grade do increase for those who work hard. “We can

shape our own destiny by hard work” (Chandran). He nicely elaborates that destiny is not

determined or predestined but actually one ought to work hard in order to build one’s own future.

However, there are scenarios when hard work does not produce the desired outcomes but it still

establishes the idea that a person is free to decide between working hard or not as it is has been a

very significant element for shaping future.

 In contrast, people inclined towards determinism hold the belief that all behavior is

determined which can be predicted by identifying the different causes and their effects. The law

of causality is very important in understanding the idea of determinism. The law states “Every

effect must have a cause; the same cause always produces the same effects” (Caplan 1). Law of

causality does assist in natural science when studying matter and energy but Behaviorists are also

strong believers in the law as it seems to offer an approach for understanding human behavior.

Some see the causes of the law being outside the individual, a position known as environmental

determinism while others see it from coming inside i.e., in the form of unconscious motivation or

genetic determinism. In some sense the law is right because causality is necessary for free will,

because an essential part of free will is the idea that I cause my actions. The problem with the

law arises when one considers choice to be an effect of a cause therefore we must distinguish

actions and choices. Actions are in fact effects of a cause. But choices are not effects because not

all choices have a cause. But if all choices had causes than a Behaviorist would be able to easily

explain the future behavior of a person however, it does not happen because there are instances

when a person takes random decisions. So the law of causality can only give a probability

regarding the occurrence of an action but it cannot predict the behavior of individuals. Another

problem with the law is that same causes cannot always produce the same effects because the

mental psyche of every human differs and people do take different actions even though the cause

might be the same. The deterministic approach surely assists in natural sciences like Physics and

Chemistry but in Behavioral studies it hasn’t been able to predict a person’s behavior with 100%

accuracy not only due to the discrepancies in the Law of Causality when applied to human

behavior but also due to the complex interaction of variables which influence behavior.
 The debate between the free will and deterministic perspective has been going on for

centuries. Proponents of each approach hold very logical arguments for adhering to each

approach. The free-will perspective emphasizes on the notion of freedom, moral responsibility

and hard work while the deterministic perspective emphasizes on the law of causality and

internal/external psychological pressures. Though deterministic view has been very successful in

explaining the behavior of atoms and molecules in natural sciences like Physics and Chemistry

but in behavioral studies it has not been able to explain the human behavior as accurately as the

free-will view. The concept of free will is used to express that behavior is not a passive reaction

to forces in fact individuals actively respond to choices therefore people should be advised to

believe in the existence of free will because than they will consider themselves to be the masters

of their own life and actively try to deal with the hardships they face but if they keep on

believing in determinism they would just bear their miseries and do nothing to counter them.

Words: 1527
 Works Cited

Baumeister, Row F. "Free Will in Scientific Psychology." Perspectives on Psychological

Science (2008): 14-19. JSTOR. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.

Caplan, Bryan. "A Short Essay on the Freedom of the Will." Libertarian. 5 May 1997. Web. 23

Mar. 2015.

Chandran, P. Mohan. "Destiny and Hard Work." Boloji. 18 June 2000. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.