GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL 2*7
least they are not notably inferior to those of non*
determinists: indeed, it is open to question whether the
belief that one's acts are determined makes any difference
at all to one's conduct
In spite of these considerations, it is plain,
at least to
the present writer, that the validity of ethics is incompatible
with the denial of free will in any of the senses
in which that term is ordinarily used, and that, conversely,
Kant is right in saying that "ought" implies "can".
If determinism is a fact, we are not responsible
for our
actions. Hence reproof is as impertinent as praise is
irrational: nor does it alter the case that the reproving
and the praising are beyond the control of the reprover
and the pxaiser. Now ethics is a structure which is built
on the twin pillars of praise and blame. If you cannot
judge in regard to a man that he ought to do action X,
and approve him for doing, blame him for not doing it,
then there is no ethical judgment which you can vaiidly
pass. Yet if he can only perform action Y, it is surely
nonsense to say that he ought to have performed
action
X, just as it would be nonsense to say of a stone that fell
from the top of a cliff on to the beach below, that it ought
to have fallen upwards into the iky. If, then, there is no
In order that
power of choice, ethics is meaningless.
ethics may have meaning, we must at least be free to
choose that which appears to us to be good, even if we
are not free in any other way, nor do I think that many
philosophers would dissent from this view*
As regards my second contention, many philosophers
have held that reason can neither determine choice nor
motivate action. I shall try to show that, if they are right
in holding this view, die task of maintaining free will,
in any event a difficult one, becomes impossible.
I. THE CASE AGAINST FREE WILL
Hie task is, I rfcpeat in any event a difficult one and, the
more closely one looks into the question, the more difficult