Advice on free will philosphers
  • edmund roberts
    2
    Hello,

    I haven't studied philosophy for a while and when I did I never looked much at discussions on free will and choice. I'm currently writing an essay about choice in video games and I would like to start it off by giving some philosophical context to why we care about our ability(free or otherwise) to make choices. Does anyone have any advice on what I should start reading? Ideally text that is easy to understand and gives a broad picture of what the free will debate is about.

    Thanks!
    edmund roberts Options
  • A Christian Philosophy
    1k
    ↪edmund roberts
    Hello.

    Texts? No idea. But here is what I know. Will is equivalent to intentions. And intention is essential to morality. If there is no freedom of intentions, then there is no morality, that is, no right or wrong way to behave. Also, if there is no free will, then there is no true love, because true love is defined as "willing the good" to the object loved.

    Thus free will is important.
    A Christian Philosophy Options
  • Heiko
    519
    Free Will is a precondition to recognize human beings as subjects. The phrase "to make a decision" already acknowledges subjectivity. Otherwise it would be a mere reaction on circumstances.
    For an in-depth study of this problem I'd suggest Kant's critiques as literature.
    Heiko Options
  • SophistiCat
    2.2k
    ↪edmund roberts
    For a broad overview you can't go wrong with the SEP:

    Free Will

    And you can drill down from there. You may also want to read some of the articles listed in the Related Entries section at the bottom.
    SophistiCat Options
  • edmund roberts
    2
    ↪SophistiCat
    perfect! thank you!
    edmund roberts Options
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