Paper 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 12

Paper 2 - Essay Example Therefore Ii is apparent that the difference between compatibilism and hard determinism is that in hard determinism, the unexpected chains are made up wholly of mechanistic cause, blind, non-rational and effect but in compatibilism there is a rational element to the unexpected chain which includes a person’s own motives, dispositions, goals and desires. Harry Frankfurt the author to the book â€Å"freedom of will and concept of a person† tries to show how we can still be free even though we do not have the ability to choose or do otherwise (Lemos 13-5). As a philosopher he thinks that a person is not made up by just a specific species with a genetic code but rather by a complex system of desires and wills. Men for instance, are capable of wanting to be different in their desires and purposes from they are, by wanting and choosing from this or that. He brought up the concept by giving out examples that came out philosophically. According to him, there are two types of motives and desires. The ‘first order’ desires and the ‘second order’ desires. The first order desires are the ones that both persons and non-persons may use. An example would be a Cat wanting to eat food from a dish. This desire for the food is not challenged by the cat so the decision is proceeded on instantly. If there was an applica tion of the second order desire, the cat might have been reading an article and observed other skinner cats getting all the handsome cats to mate with her forcing this cat to question its eating habits. The questioning of a desire is what is referred to as the second order desire which is classified as ‘self-selection’. According to Frankfurt, only man has this capability but it has been discovered that some animals have this capability as well. From his own theory concept, he says that being free is a matter of doing what one is desired to do which is not an adequate condition of having