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Free Will


Descartes on the other hand, I don't think he believes our will to be free. He thinks God is the creator of it and therefore controls the way it works. So in that way it isn't free to decide anything. That brings up the idea of freedom of the will in which both give reasons for their beliefs.
             Descartes thinks that freedom is the capacity to act rationally, to guide by reasons, or, what amounts to the same thing, to do things for a purpose, to act in view of the good, as one seems fit. Descartes points out to us that there is a rigid contrast between being caused to do something that's determined by an external force and doing something for a reason because there is an understanding of the truth and goodness. Free beings direct themselves towards the good while material nature is blind to all value. .
             Searle thinks that freedom is just a fact of experience. The first thing to notice about our conception of human freedom is that it is tied to consciousness. Free will is only attributed to conscious beings. Searle says that the characteristic experience gives us the conviction of human freedom. It is an experience that freedom can't be stripped away from and it's the engaging in voluntary, intentional human actions. The experience of freedom is an essential player in any case of acting with an intention. They both establish their points but I"m not sure about Descartes" view on the external force acting on us to make a decision. I think Searle's is easier to relate to considering it's about your own real life experiences. They both think that the freedom of the will can't be stripped from us because if we doubted that then we"d have to doubt ourselves again and we"d be back to where we started. All this brings up the idea that free will is problematic, according!.
             to Searle. Searle thinks that free will is problematic in that it's not whether or not there are inner psychological reasons that cause us to do things as well as external physical causes and inner compulsions.


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