Neal Hapairai-Hansen

Intro to Philosophy
Philosophical Paper
Free-will has many factors that cause it to be a problem. Whether we have free-will, how
we get free-will, and what free-will is are just some of the problems associated with free-will.
Aristotle separated free-will into three categories, voluntary, involuntary, and non-voluntary.
Voluntary actions are actions that we participate in willingly by giving up some disgrace or pain
as the only way of achieving some great or splendid result (Aristotle). Involuntary actions are
actions made when we are compelled by an outside force to act or do something we cannot
control ourselves. Non-voluntary actions are described as being actions that are made through
ignorance but also without regret.
John Hospers goes farther on this by trying to define voluntary or involuntary acts by
defining what free entails. Freedom to Hospers, in respect to each persons capabilities, is to be
able to do something if we want to, in other words voluntary. Thus free actions are actions that
we can do if we want to, or volunteer ourselves to take part in. Involuntary is the opposite,
actions or events that we had no control over, or are being forced into doing. The implications of
Hospers arguments are that certain people cannot be held responsible or accountable for actions
or events that occurred during their childhood, as they were not free actions that a person had
control over, or consciously and willingly participated in. Ultimately Hospers brings up the
problem of how we cannot be held responsible for basically anything we do as they can be
correlated or can be a result of events that we had no control over, and as a result those events
caused future events whose reaction can be traced to past events.

The final philosopher to be discussed who dealt with free-will, Baron DHolbach argues
that we have no free-will. Any preconceived notion free-will is just a combination of ideas
implanted into each person throughout their lives. These combinations come from daily events,
such as a crime seen in the news, or the stories in the news, or even daily interactions with
people. All these factors contribute to our will, which DHolbach has described as anything but
free. Thus the problem he addresses relating to free-will is if it is free, which it is not, it is a will
that guides our decision based on past decisions of others.
One thing that has commonly been spoken of by these three philosophers is whether we
can be held accountable for our actions. Overall the consensus is split, we can be held
responsible for our actions if we willing acted as such. On the other side, we also cannot be held
responsible for actions we participated in as we did not willing choose to, but rather we chose to
act as a result of interactions during our lives.
What has been done to fix this, is a thought that comes to mind, which has been
attempted to be answered by some newer philosophers. Joseph Campbell recently took a
different approach to free will, incorporating various parts of determinism and its counterpart
indeterminism.
Campbell brings up the idea of PAP, or the Principle of Alternative Possibilities, saying
A person is morally responsible for what she has done only if she could have done otherwise
(Joseph Keim Campbell). On top of that, Campbell talks about free will as it relates to
indeterminism. He says that instead of actions being completely random and uncontrollable,
actions are just a series of probabilities that ultimately choose our fate.

Some of the problems with Campbells viewpoint is that he turns indeterminism into a
lighter version of determinism. Other issues with his argument are that even if they could have
done otherwise, were the other choices morally acceptable, or could they really do otherwise if
the other options were not morally acceptable to the person. Finally, Campbells theories do not
address the deterministic side of the debate.

Works Cited:
Aristotle, and J. E. C. Welldon. The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle. London: Macmillan, 1892.
Print.
Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry D' The System of Nature: Or The Laws of the Moral and Physical
World. London: Kearsley, 1797. Print.
"Joseph Keim Campbell." Joseph Keim Campbell. The Information Philosopher, n.d. Web. 10
Aug. 2015.