Freedom

If we were to assume that human beings have free-will, then should we also assume that other animals have free-will? If not then at what point in the evolutionary process can we reasonably place the development of free-will?

Comments

Since philosophers disagree about what free will is, this is not a straightforward question to answer. But one attractive idea, due to Harry Frankfurt, is that free will requires that an animal have 'second order desires'. First order desires are desires concerning things, like food or a good book; second order desires are desires concerning desires, like the desire to desire to go to the opera, or the desire not to desire cigarettes. The idea is that having free will has to do with having a certain harmony between first order and second order desires: the animal wants to want what it wants. So if this is along the right lines, then only animals capable of these sophisticated second order desires can have free will. And maybe only humans are animals like that: other animals have first order desires, but maybe not second order desires.

Read another response by Peter Lipton

Read another response about Freedom