Evaluating free will and libertarianism

Overview

Recall questions on religious views of freedom, how extensive choice really is, Sartre's case, scientific evidence, humanist psychology, binding free agents to a normative ethic, and prayer.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Argue that religious views of free will are convincing.

   Model answer

   They make sense of the calls to repent and obey that run through scripture, uphold God's justice in judging people, and account for the moral seriousness of religious life.

2. 2

   Argue that religious views of free will are unconvincing.

   Model answer

   They sit awkwardly with divine foreknowledge and omnipotence, and Pelagius was condemned precisely because a will able to save itself appears to make grace unnecessary.

3. 3

   Argue that an individual has extensive freedom of choice.

   Model answer

   People deliberate, resist their impulses, change long-established habits and accept responsibility, all of which presuppose that more than one course was genuinely open.

4. 4

   Argue that an individual's freedom of choice is very limited.

   Model answer

   Genes, upbringing, culture, poverty and mental illness narrow the options available, so much of what looks like choice is a path already set.

5. 5

   Argue that Sartre's philosophical case establishes libertarianism.

   Model answer

   The impossibility of avoiding choice is difficult to deny, and his account of bad faith explains why people so often insist they had no alternative.

6. 6

   Argue that Sartre's philosophical case fails to establish libertarianism.

   Model answer

   He asserts radical freedom rather than demonstrating it, and a determinist can say the experience of choosing is exactly what a determined agent would feel.

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