A Brief Defense
of Free Will
	Tibor Machan (1995)
	Chapter 2 pg. 33 - 39
	Introduction to Philosophy
	Professor Doug Olena
	
The Importance of Having Free Will
	A. 33 So the very meaningfulness of the advocacy of political ideals implies that free will exists.
	B. 33 Individual rights need to be respected because we must have an area of personal responsibility within which to make our choices about our lives or wherein to initiate our own actions.
The Importance of Having Free Will
	C. 33 Šrequiring of people that they respect individual rights also assumes that they possess free will. Otherwise it would make no sense to require such respect from them: something they have no choice about cannot be something they morally ought to and can fail to do.
The Importance of Having Free Will
	D. 34 Yet, only if we have free will does any talk of blaming our parents, politicians, the rich, bureaucrats, and the rest make sense.
	E. 34 My thesis, in other words, is that human beings are able to cause their actions and they are therefore responsible for some of what they do. In a basic sense we are all original actors capable of making novel moves in the world. We are, in other words, initiators of some of our behavior.
The Importance of Having Free Will
	F. 34 Free will is a natural phenomenon, something that emerged in nature with the emergence of human beings, with their kind of minds, namely, minds that can think and be aware of their own thinking.
Nature¹s Laws 
Versus Free Will
	Natural law thesis:
	G. 34 Natural law governs the universe. The law of cause and effect is the governing principle of every thing in it.
	H. 35 Human beings are subject to the kind of causation everything else is.
	I. 35 We are more complicated, not different.
Nature¹s Laws 
Versus Free Will
	Tibor Machan rebuttal to the natural law thesis:
	J. 35 Nature exhibits innumerable different domains, distinct not only in their complexity but also in the kinds of beings they include. So it is not possible to rule out ahead of time that there might be something that exhibits agent causation.
	K. 35 This alone might not be enough to prove free will.
Can We Know 
of Free Will?
	Problem:
	L. 35 But since the sensory organs do not give us direct evidence of such a thing as free will, there really isn¹t any such thing.
	Resolution:
	M. 35Šfree will may not be something that we can see directly, but what best explains what we do see in human life.
Can We Know 
of Free Will?
	N. 36 One could know something because it explains something . . . better than any alternative.
Is Free Will Weird?
	Problem:
	O. 36 No other animals exhibit free will, therefore it appears arbitrary to impute it to human beings.
	Resolution:
	P. 36 There is such a variety of things in nature. Free will might be another variety of natural things.
Are We Determined to be Determinists ­ or Not?
	Q. 36 There is an argument against determinism to the effect that if we are fully determined in what we think, believe, and do, then of course the belief that determinism is true is also a result of determinism.
	R. 36...paradoxically, we¹ll never be able to resolve this debate, [if determinism is correct] since there is no way of obtaining an objective assessment. Indeed, the very idea of scientific or judicial objectivity, as well as of ever reaching philosophical truth, has to do with being free.
Should We Become Determinists?
	S. 37 The determinist wants us to believe in determinism. 
	In fact, he believes we ought to be determinists rather than believe in this myth called ³free will². . . . ³[O]ught² implies ³can². 
	That is, if one ought to believe in or do something this implies that one has a choice in the matter. . . .
We Often Know
We Are Free!
	T. 37 There is a lot of evidence from people all around us of the existence of free choice.
Modern Science Discovers Free Will!
	U. 37 The brain, because of its structure, can monitor itself and as a result we can decide whether to continue in a certain pattern or to change that pattern.
	V. 38 Precisely the sort of thing Sperry thinks possible is evident in our lives. We make plans and revise them. We explore alternatives and decide to follow one of them. We change a course of conduct we have embarked upon, or continue with it. In other words, there is a locus of individual self-responsibility that is evident in the way in which we look upon ourselves ­ and the way in which we in fact behave.
Some People Are Determined; Some Are Not.
	W. 38 Those who deny that we have free will simply cannot make sense of our distinction between cases in which one controls one¹s behavior and those in which one is being moved by forces over which he or she has no control.
The Best Theory Is True.
	X. 38 We get a better understanding, for example, of why social engineering and government regulation and regimentation do not work, why there are so many individual and cultural differences, why people can be wrong, why they can disagree with each other, etc. It is because they are free to do so.
	Y. 39 Clearly, very often people change their minds and surprise or annoy us. And, if we go to different cultures, they¹ll surprise us even more. This complexity, diversity, and individuation about human beings is best explained if human beings are free than if they are determined.
Is Free Will Well Founded?
	Z. 39 Free Will or Determinism: Which supposition explains the human world and its complexities around us?
	A1. 39 Social engineering is, thus, not a genuine prospect for solving human problems‹only education and individual initiative can do that.