Free Will And Determinism
Free Will and Determinism- is it an Illusion?
Determinism, libertarianism and compatibilism are three significantly different views on where unaccountability might stop and where free will and moral responsibility begin. Determinism is the strict opinion that every action and decision is the cause of an event, genetics or the environment prior to that action. Quite the opposite is libertarianism, which happens to be the genuine belief in free will as well as the denial of universal causation. Finally, deep self-compatibilism meshes both of these stand points together and introduces the idea that one’s action can be free if it stems purely out of personal, authentic desire. Since all three judgments have a backbone of convincing arguments, it is difficult to live by just one. Studying the Satyr’s justification, Hench’s ever-changing attitude toward his creation, and Michael Gorr’s point if view on the matter, one way of thinking may become more rational than the others.
Silenus the Satyr is a strange creature, half man, half goat who was brought to life in a laboratory by a man named Hench. Near the end of this fiction, Silenus is sold to slavery in an environment lacking both booze and women after he acts on a desire to have sex with a woman without her consent. The Satyr repeatedly uses his hard determinist point of view to convince Hench that everything that happens has a reason, and if something is caused it cannot be free. Therefore, the Satyr has neither free will nor moral responsibility. First, Silenus urges Hench that because everything has a cause or is triggered by prior actions, he can’t be held accountable and punished for the rape he initiated. Silenus speaks to Hench when he says, “You’re the one who gave me the extra Y-chromosome,” (Satyr, 221). This statement kills two birds with one stone by both reassuring Silenus of his innocence, and causing Hench to reminisce the possibility that his...
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