Many philosophers argue the issue of the free will and there is no particular opinion about the circumstances which guide people in their decisions. Defining hard determinism, it should be stated that this notion is connected with both determinism and the impossibility of the free will. Thus, hard determinism should be viewed as the item which rejects free will and supports the idea that all the choices are made only under the impact of the particular circumstances and ca never occur without their presence.
Hard determinism is opposed to incompatibilism which supports the idea that the universe is at odds and people can make choices of their own as they want, in other words incompatibilism support the idea of free will. Therefore, there are two specific ideas in the relation to free will, hard determinism and incompatibilism opposite to each other. The supporters of any have strict arguments as they believe which may be easily ruined by another side.
The supporters of the hard determinism have a lot of arguments in the favor of their idea. First of all, it should be mentioned that everything in this world is made for a particular reason and is based on the issue of necessity.
Thus, when people make decisions they usually apply to the arguments of the necessity and it does not give them an opportunity to make their choices independent. Furthermore, the supported of hard determinism are sure that God is aware of all human actions and the choice is already made. People just follow the existing path to achieve their purposes.
Additionally, when people make choices they usually base them on something. It may be either their personal decisions or the decisions based on other circumstances which do not depend on them. Basing the choice on the outside circumstances people do not express free will as well as the basis on the personal considerations as in this case people also base their decision on something which may not be an absolute free will.
There are several objections to the hard determinism, however, there is one which is hard to contradict. It is possible to give the arguments about the reasons of the choice after the choice has been made.
Thus, a person makes a choice and this choice may be free, however, after it, it is possible to analyze the situation, to combine the circumstances and find out that the choice was dependant. This is the common situation which cannot be solved. On the one hand, the opponents of the hard determinism state that free will exists and people do not base their own decisions on anything, however, it is possible to say that the decision was based on nothing, but this is not true.
Thus, the main idea of the objection is when people make choices they do not think about anything but for their personal will and desire and all the further contradictions are based on the analysis of the already made decision and it is more the evaluation of the done actions than the support of the hard determinism theory. Trying to contradict this objection, it is possible to refer to Aquinas’s theory based on the based on the possibility and necessity.
Aquinas’s theory is based on the following ideas, all the objects may possibly exist and may possibly not exist as well as they are either necessary or not. The issue of the necessity of the things is explained as follows, if things exist they are necessarily based on the necessity for others. If things are not necessary, they do not exist.
This theory is the proof that God exists and that God is the entire necessity, but in our case it is possible to take for granted the idea of God’s existence and in this case we can state that the objection of the hard determinism is just the failure to accept that there is no another idea except for hard determinism.
If ideas exist and the choices are made, they are based on something. It is impossible to construct ideas out of nothing and for nothing. People usually base their decisions and choices on some particular consideration. Thus, they are dependant on these considerations and this is not a free will, this is the dependency.
To make sure that the situation is considered in detail, it is important to state an example. Let’s make an assumption that a person wants to go to the cinema. Thus, a persona makes a decision to go to the cinema. Choosing such an entertainment people may say that they are guided by the personal will, however this is not true as people are social being and they need entertainments.
Thus, it may be predicted that the choice of going to the cinema is based on the social needs of people they are unable to control. This is not the free will. Therefore, any objections to the hard determinism may be contradicted as people are unable to make choices based on free will.