Chapter 15 Exercises: Freedom and Determinism

Comprehension Check

Exercise 15.1 — Map the Positions

Before doing any analysis, make sure you have the three main positions clearly in your head. Write a single paragraph for each — in your own words, not paraphrased from the chapter — explaining:

  • What hard determinism claims
  • What libertarian free will claims
  • What compatibilism claims

Then, for each position, write one sentence identifying what you think is its strongest point and one sentence identifying what you think is its most vulnerable point.

Thought Experiments

Exercise 15.2 — The Replay

Imagine that the universe is exactly as it is right now — every particle, every neural state, every event in your history — and then it is "rewound" 10 seconds and played forward again under exactly the same laws of physics.

(a) According to hard determinism, what would happen? Would you make the same choices you are about to make?

(b) According to libertarian free will, what would happen? Could the replay produce a different outcome?

(c) Does the possibility of a deterministic replay change how you feel about your choices? If the answer is "not really," why might that be? (Hint: this is what Strawson's essay is partly about.)

Exercise 15.3 — The Manipulation Case

Consider the following scenario:

Alicia was raised from birth by a neuroscientist who carefully arranged every influence on her development — her diet, her education, the people she met, the books she read, the experiences she had — in order to produce, at age 25, a person with a very specific set of values and dispositions. At age 25, Alicia acts in accordance with those values and dispositions. She deliberates carefully, she acts from desires she endorses upon reflection, and she is not coerced or compelled at the moment of action.

(a) Does Alicia act freely in the Frankfurt sense? Does she act freely in any sense that matters?

(b) Does it change your answer to know that everyone's values and dispositions were shaped by influences they didn't choose — just not as deliberately arranged as Alicia's?

(c) What does this thought experiment reveal about the difference between hard incompatibilism and compatibilism?

Exercise 15.4 — The Veto

Libet noted that subjects in his experiment could veto a movement right up until the last 200ms or so. He suggested this might mean that conscious will plays a "gating" or "permissive" role — it doesn't initiate action, but it can stop it.

(a) If true, does this "veto power" rescue a meaningful form of free will? Why or why not?

(b) Can you think of examples from your own life where what feels most like freedom is not the initiation of action but the restraint — the decision not to do something you were about to do?

(c) Suppose all of your "veto" decisions are also preceded by neural activity that occurs before you're consciously aware of them. Does this close the loophole, or does it not matter?

Applied Analysis

Exercise 15.5 — Frankfurt's Test

Identify a desire you currently have that you endorse on reflection — one you genuinely want to have, that expresses who you are or who you want to be.

Then identify a desire you have that you do not endorse — one you wish you didn't have, or that conflicts with your considered values.

(a) What is the phenomenological difference between acting from the endorsed desire and being driven by the non-endorsed one?

(b) According to Frankfurt, which action is more free?

(c) Does this match your intuition? Are there cases where Frankfurt's analysis seems to get it wrong?

Exercise 15.6 — The Criminal Justice Application

A person is convicted of a violent crime. The defense presents evidence that the person suffered severe childhood abuse, has a traumatic brain injury affecting impulse control, grew up in extreme poverty, and has a documented psychiatric condition that was untreated at the time of the offense.

(a) What would a hard determinist say about this person's moral responsibility and about appropriate punishment?

(b) What would a libertarian free will advocate say?

(c) What would a compatibilist say?

(d) What do you think? Be specific about what kind of response you would support and why.

Journaling Prompts

Exercise 15.7 — Your Own Determinism

Think about a significant choice you made in your life — positive or negative — and trace its causes as far back as you can. What factors shaped the person who made that choice? What circumstances were you responding to?

(a) Does this causal tracing change how you feel about the choice — either by reducing your sense of credit, or reducing your sense of blame?

(b) Apply the same analysis to a choice made by someone who affected you negatively. Does understanding the causes change how you feel about them?

(c) Does engaging in this kind of causal analysis make you more compassionate — toward yourself, toward others — or does it feel like a threat to the moral order?

Exercise 15.8 — The Buddhist Inquiry

Set aside five minutes and try the following reflection (not meditation, just a careful look):

Notice the experience of having a thought or impulse arise. Pay attention to the moment before you "decide" to act on it or not. Ask: where did this impulse come from? Can you identify a fixed "I" who chose it, or does it seem more like something that arose in you?

(a) What did you notice?

(b) Does the Buddhist analysis of non-self help with the free will problem, or does it just reframe it?

(c) If there is no fixed self, does that make the free will debate easier or harder?

Progressive Project Component

For your Meaning section of the Examined Life Portfolio:

Write a 400–600 word entry addressing:

  1. Which account of free will — hard determinism, libertarian free will, or compatibilism — do you find most intellectually compelling? Not most comforting, but most defensible given what you now know.

  2. How does your position on free will affect how you think about moral responsibility for yourself? Is there anything in your past you've been holding yourself responsible for that the philosophical analysis sheds new light on?

  3. How does your position affect how you think about others — particularly those who have harmed you, or those who have committed serious wrongs?

  4. One thing you want to carry forward from this chapter — either a concept, a question, or a shift in perspective.

Be honest rather than impressive. The goal is genuine philosophical self-examination, not an academic essay.