What is the problem of freedom?

Question

Related to determinism, compatibilism and libertarianism. This is an intro philosophy course...

Answer 1

I take it you mean you're boning up for a university intro course.

The problem of freedom is the question: Can I choose to act otherwise than I do? Here's a mundane example. You have an argument, and you say something you wish you hadn't. Was it really unavoidable, or could you have acted differently?

Your textbook treatments usually supply the 3 alternative positions:

1. Determinism: everything's already set in motion, we're like billiard balls that just react, so freedom is illusory. Spinoza is one guy who takes up this position.

2. Compatibilism: free will and determinism are compatible. Kant, for one, argues along these lines.

3. Libertarianism: there's at least a bit of wiggle-room (chance) in the cosmos, so that not everything is graven in stone.

Understand that these are the results of serious inquiry - the ends of the road, not the paths that lead to them. Getting into that would take up too much space here; see the links below.

Answer 2

The answer to your question is different for each of the three options you listed.

The issue of determinism is that while we experience our decisions as being free, they may not be. For example, when I decided to answer this question, I felt like that was a decision I made, and if I had wanted to I could have chosen otherwise. However, determinists would say that I only felt as though the choice was mine when really it was already made. There are two major versions of determinism. The theistic version says that God has to have determined all human decisions because he is all knowing, so he knew every decision we would make before he even created the world. Therefore, his creating the world was basically him forcing us to play out all the decisions he knew we would make, which is equivalent to him determining our actions for us. The non-theistic version of determinism says that humans have a set nature, and our decisions are determined by our genetics and previous experiences, such that if you knew a person's genetic code and all of their previous experiences, you could determine with certainty every thought they would have and every choice they would make in any given situation.

The freedom issue of compatibilism relates to the theistic version of determinism. As suggested by the name, it means that both determinism and free will are true- the two concepts are compatible. This is because God's knowing what we will do is not the same as him forcing us to do it. Imagine you have a pet rat, and you know for a fact that if you put peanut butter in the rat's cage, it will eat it. If you go ahead and put the peanut butter in the cage, is that the same thing as forcing the rat to eat it? A compatibilist would say no, the rat could have chosen otherwise if it really wanted to. Your knowing what the rat would do is not forcing it to act. If you had forced the peanut butter down the rat's throat, that would have been coercive, but knowledge alone doesn't equal control in the deterministic sense.

For libertarianism, the issue is what constitutes an optimal amount of freedom. Generally libertarians say that the less the government interferes in peoples lives, the better. However, unlike anarchists, libertarians do believe that there should be a government, so the problem is determining how much government involvement is the right amount. If there were no laws against murder, that would inhibit my freedom rather than increasing it, because I would not be free to walk down the street without imminent fear that someone could murder me without recourse. If there were no legal right to free speech that would inhibit my freedom, because people could legally stop me from speaking freely. The lilbertarian has to determine what type and degree of government involvement leads to the most freedom, and what types inhibit freedom more than they enhance it.

Answer 3

The problem with freedom is that it is only an idea, no one is truly free, whether trapped by laws or bars of death freedom is a simple wish, a want and a need to be able to make your own choices we are trapped on this planet mostly, so we are not free in that sense, trapped in out own beliefs and prejudices, trapped in laws of science and myths of gods

a free man is a dead man-but this is sometimes not true, if what christians/catholics/god believers say is true then even after death there is no freedom, we go to either a place called heaven or hell.

Freedom is power, and power corrupts, a drug-lord for instance can use his influence to escape laws, there is a measure of freedom in that.
Or for a righteous cause a good king might decide that the evil king's slavery must stop, and has the freedom to choose to not interfere or go to war, is this fair though? Good and Evil are perceptions, can never be proved. The *evil king* might have slaves because that is the way their ancestors have lived, they don't know how to do it themselves, and the *good king* is trying to destroy what his whole kingdom was birthed from.

Freedom is never fair and can never be true, only illusions of it exist.
i hope i helped and did not just ramble relentlessly :D

Answer 4

The problem with freedom is that it is an unattainable state. We all live in various degrees of containment, be they laws, geography or social conditioning. Freedom as used today is an expression of individuals having more control over their life, but the reality is that every human lives under some degree of control. Regardless of what conditions people contrive as "freedom", there is invariably some degree of control over it. As the idea of "free" contradicts control, the idea that "freedom" can be attainted is an illusion - humans are really debating over various degrees of control that society finds acceptable.

Answer 5

Its Very Easy to be Evil because there are no Restrictions or Rules to follow.... Its you doing what ever the hell you want to do whether your hurting someone or not.

With Freedom there are rules, regulations and responsibilities to uphold and adhere to. Without rules there would be chaos.

It sounds contradictory, but True Freedom is being able to do what ever the hell you want to do - Free will. Its your conscious, morals and principles that dictates whether or not your going to be evil.

Answer 6

The problem with freedom is that everyone has a different idea of what it is to be free, so one person's freedom may be another's infringment.

Answer 7

"We are programmed, our minds are programmed to be a Christian, to be a Hindu, to be this and to be that. And after being programmed for two thousand years as Christians, and Hindus for perhaps three to five thousand years, we repeat. Clever, cunning, destructive. So can a human mind be free from all those states of being programmed? You understand? That means freedom from conditioning."
Krishnamurti

Answer 8

True freedom requires responsibilty of your choices.
I saw a bumper sticker awhile back that summed it up this way.
The problem with most Americans is, They are afraid of Freedom.

Answer 9

The problem with freedom, is that we all want to guard our freedoms zealously, but we don't want to accept the responsibilities that go with it.

Answer 10

Finding it's limitations and it's true owner.