Today

1
Today

• A brief general introduction to the problem of
  free will
  
• Augustines notion of freedom
• Boethius notion of freedom

2
The problem of free will

• What are some of the things that we think we do
  freely?
  
• What are some of the things that we think we do
  of our own free will?
  
• We have the intuition that we have free will and
  that some of our actions are done freely.

3
The problem of free will

• We distinguish between a free action and one that
  is the result of some compulsion.
  
• Examples of actions that are not free are we are
  blackmailed to do what we do, we can not help
  doing what we do, we are forced to do what we do,
  we are unable to do what we want to do

4
The problem of free will

• Actions that are done freely often involve a
  choice between different courses of action
  
• We make a choice and since it is our choice we
  are also morally responsible for our action.
  
• If someone is forced to step on your toe you will
  find it difficult to blame him. But if someone
  makes a free choice to step on your toe, you will
  blame him and hold him responsible.

5
The problem of free will

• The intuitive idea of free will thus involves
  that a person makes a choice and then performs
  the action he has chosen.
  
• For the choice to be free the person needs to
  have alternatives available.
  
• As a result of the free choice, the person is
  morally responsible for the action.

6
The problem of free will

• Now we get to the problem of free will.
• There are a variety of arguments that claim that
  we in fact have no free will.
  
• The modern argument is based on the idea of
  determinism
  
• Augustine and Boethius consider an argument that
  is based on Gods foreknowledge

7
The problem of free will

• Determinism is the following claim Everything in
  the world is determined to happen by any prior
  state of the universe and the laws of nature.
  
• Determinism claims that the history of the world
  is fixed from its beginning and the laws of
  nature.
  
• This includes all human actions.

8
The problem of free will

• If all human actions are fixed by the laws of
  nature and a prior state of the universe, then
  nobody ever has genuinely an alternative open to
  him.
• When we make a choice it only seems to us that we
  can choose an alternative.
  
• We are in fact unable to choose anything but what
  is determined to happen.

9
The problem of free will

• There are different ways of responding to this
  problem.
  
• The response that is most important for us is
  compatibilism.
  
• Compatibilism claims that an action can be free
  even if we could not have chosen an alternative,
  even if we do not make a real choice.

10
The problem of free will

• Compatibilism claims that determinism and free
  will are compatible, that they do not contradict
  one another.
  
• However, compatibilism has the task of explaining
  how one can have freedom if one has no real
  choice.
  
• Compatibilism also has the problem of explaining
  how moral responsibility is possible if nobody
  ever has a real choice.

11
Augustines notion of freedom

• To understand Augustines notion of freedom we
  need to distinguish between free will and free
  action.
  
• Consider a decision that leads to an action
• One might say that the action is free if it is
  based on your own decision.
  
• One might say that your decision or your will is
  free if it is the decision you want to make

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Augustines notion of freedom

• Freedom of Action
• You act in the way you want to act
• You act in accordance with your own decision
• You are not bound and gagged, or forced to
  perform a certain action

• Freedom of the Will
• You make the decision you want to make
• Your decision is genuinely based on your own
  preferences
  
• You are not blackmailed or forced to make a
  certain decision

13
Augustines notion of freedom

• Augustine considers only freedom of action
• He defines freedom as voluntary action
• This means that freedom consists in doing what
  you decide to do.
  
• If you act on your own decisions you are free.

14
Augustines notion of freedom

• Augustine does not see a problem of freedom and
  determinism
  
• He understands the problem to arise because of
  Gods foreknowledge
  
• If God knows already what you will decide to have
  for lunch tomorrow, then you do not seem to have
  a real choice.
  
• You have to choose what God knows you will choose.

15
Augustines notion of freedom

• A genuine choice is not required for freedom
  according to Augustine
  
• All that is required for freedom is that your
  action is based on your own decision.
  
• You in a sense had to make that decision, but it
  is still your decision and so your action is free.

16
Augustines notion of freedom

• One can easily raise a problem with this notion
  of freedom.
  
• Suppose that someone pushes you over a cliff and
  you say half way down I want to fall to my
  death! Would your falling to your death then be
  free?
• Suppose that you are imprisoned and cannot leave.
  One day you say to yourself I want to be
  imprisoned! Would it then be free?

17
Augustines notion of freedom

• In response to these problems we need to remember
  that Augustine is a Christian thinker.
  
• When we pray the Lords prayer, we say Thy will
  be done!
  
• Augustine often talks about a choice that we have
  to make, between serving our own various wants
  and needs and serving God.

18
Augustines notion of freedom

• Augustine thinks of this decision, to serve our
  own interests or to serve God is the key free
  choice that we have to make.
  
• Freedom is compatible with submitting ourselves
  to Gods will
  
• When we pray Thy will be done, we freely submit
  to Gods will.

19
Augustines notion of freedom

• If our freedom is the result of the choice to
  serve either our own wants and needs or God, then
  freedom is compatible with Gods foreknowledge.
  
• When we say Thy will be done, we submit of our
  own free will and perform those actions that God
  foresees us to perform

20
Augustines notion of freedom

• In the case of falling down the cliff, we are not
  supposed to submit to the bad will of this other
  person pushing us off the cliff.
  
• When we are imprisoned we are not supposed to
  submit to the bad will of the persons
  imprisoning us.
  
• We are supposed to decide for or against God and
  submit to him, not to the bad will of other
  people.

21
Boethius notion of freedom

• Boethius struggles with the same problem of
  whether Gods foreknowledge and freedom in our
  choices and actions are compatible.
  
• However, he sees the key to the problem in the
  distinction between simple and conditional
  necessity.

22
Boethius notion of freedom

• Boethius thinks of simple necessity as due to the
  nature of the necessary thing.
  
• Suppose that we consider the law of gravity.
• Now we can predict a number of things on the
  basis of the law of gravity, and those things
  that we predict happen necessarily.
  
• If an object falls to the ground it does so out
  of necessity.
  
• Given its nature is has to fall down.

23
Boethius notion of freedom

• Conditional necessity on the other hand means
  that something is necessary given that a certain
  condition obtains.
  
• For example it is necessary that all those who
  are registered for this class will receive a
  grade.
  
• Given the condition of being registered for the
  class, you will receive a grade.
  
• However, it is not simply necessary that you will
  receive a grade for the class.

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Boethius notion of freedom

• Conditional necessity
• If a certain condition obtains then something
  must happen
  
• Without the condition it need not happen.
• Example If you go to a specific restaurant, you
  need to choose from its menu.

• Simple Necessity
• Something must happen because of its nature
• Even before it happens it is necessary that it
  will happen
  
• Example the motion of the planets

25
Boethius notion of freedom

• Boethius main claim is that human actions are not
  simply necessary, but only conditionally
  necessary.
  
• The condition that renders them necessary is
  Gods foreknowledge.
  
• But they are not in themselves or by their nature
  necessary.
  
• We do not act in the way in which the planets
  move around.

26
Boethius notion of freedom

• Boethius idea thus allows one to distinguish
  different ways in which something might be
  necessary.
  
• He is able to distinguish between the necessity
  of human action and the necessity of planetary
  motion, for example.
  
• Human action is due to our own decisions.
  However, God foresees our decisions and actions.
  Given this condition they have to happen. But it
  is not the case that human action is because of
  its nature necessary.

27
Boethius notion of freedom

• In the modern version of the problem of free
  will, people usually think that the same kind of
  necessity governs both planetary motion and human
  action.
• The idea is that everything that happens is
  determined to happen by the laws of nature and a
  prior state of the universe.
  
• What could Boethius say in response?