Preview

Having A First And Second Order Of Volition

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
163 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Having A First And Second Order Of Volition
According to Frankfurt, having free will consists in having a second order of volition. This would entail a person having a first order desire where they decisively identify a desire to want or not to want to do something. The person must have the freedom to want whatever they will. If a person identifies their first order as wanting to do something, their second order must either want to want their first order or not want to want their first order. These would be considered the desire upon which the person will become moved or act upon. In having a first and second order of volition would indicate a kind of conflict (if the orders do not coincide), that needs to be resolved in order for an action to occur. If however, the conflict is not resolved

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Phil 1101 Final

    • 2064 Words
    • 7 Pages

    a. The slogan for Frankfurt’s view of free will is “your will is free when you have the will you want to have.” He believes that you have free will when you are in control of your desires.…

    • 2064 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essentially, free will is the ability to act without constraint; however, Tierney asserts that there’s…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Free will, by definition, is having the ability or power to act without regard to limitations and at the individuals own discretion.…

    • 1354 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The distinction between a wanton and person is that when a person acts, their desire originates from reflection. On the other hand, wantons actions do not reflect or can guide their will. Furthermore, Frankfurt contends that second-order volitions are associated with the freedom of the will. A freedom of the will can be an issue for people. This is the situation because of the way free will is difficult because the fact that we should have the ability to guide our desires in relationship to our will for us to have the possibility of freedom. The possibility of the freedom is just valid if one's desire is connected to one's volitions. Moreover, Frankfurt contends there is a particular distinction between the freedom of will and freedom of action. The freedom of action refers to the state where one is free to do what one needs while freedom of the will is the freedom for one to need what one needs to have. The freedom of the will is when one acts just on the desires that they need to need. Moreover, in freedom of the will, one is free to have a will that one really need, and it is accordingly just free when one follow up on the will one needs. For Frankfurt, the possibility of freedom is different than…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stan Lee, creator of many of the Marvel movies, once said, “With great power there must also come… great responsibility.” Free will is like a great power that has been given to us. It can be used for good and evil. As humans, we believe that we have a choice in everything. Thus the idea of free will. But because of that choice there will always be a downside to free will.…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    vHarry Frankfurt’s work “Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person” discusses the attributes of free will through the concept of first and second order desires. He explains that a first-order desire is a desire to perform an action, and a second-order desire is the desire to perform another desire. When someone wants their secondary desire to become their will and take the place of their first-order desire it is called a second-order volition. Frankfurt’s work centers on how second-order volitions are evidence of free will because free will is only achieved when a person is able to choose which desire to act upon. Frankfurt argues that each second-order volition is an expression of free will and without them a person is left with only…

    • 1281 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    concept that humans have free will and are conscious of their existence and the decisions…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Frankfurt, H. G. (1971, January 14). Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person. The Journal of Philosophy, 5-20.…

    • 1592 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Self-Determination Theory

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The theoretical frameworks that will be utilized in this study are the Self Determination theory (STD) and the Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theories. Combination of these two theories is effective to understand the pregnant women’s behaviour towards UI. This is because self-determination and communication skill is importance to determine the decision making with regards to self-motivation to look for disease treatment.…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The debate between freewill and determinism stems from the apparent conflict between the universal rule of causality that is deeply rooted in nature, and between the apparent ability of human beings to choose between multiple courses of action in order to lead to the most desirable outcome. The universal rule of causality simply claims that inorganic matter such as tables, chairs and rocks are acted upon by whatever forces affect it, however, human beings seem to be an exception to this rule by their unique ability to ponder about how to go about making decisions in their life and which…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Gary Gutting, the author of the article, What Makes Free Will Free? deliberates that we do not have free choice as we assumed which a researcher confirmed. By free choice, this means the conviction that our conduct is dictated by our own unrestrained choice and that we have complete power over our activities. Also, Gary Gutting examined various thoughts on determinism as the researchers suggested. Determinism refers to the conviction that all human conduct or any other occurrences have a cause. This is opposed to a person's will to accomplish an action. Gary Gutting discussed what David Hume, a philosopher, believed and the belief of David Hume is that both determinism and free choice are possible, they are compatible with each…

    • 1857 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Two different causations of motives are shown here. Two different outcomes are presented in this scenario, to drink the water and die or continue on with the desperate need of water. The man believes he has free will by his ability to make a choice. The action the man will take is the one he has the strongest urge or desire for. D'Holbach argues that this does that present a man is free agent, two different motives are presented, and a man determines his choice based upon the strongest desire that annihilates his first desire. When two separate motives are present, a man must deliberate. D'Holbach defines "To deliberate, is to hate and to love in succession; it is to be alternately attracted and repelled; it is to be moved, sometimes by one motive, sometimes by another." (D'Holbach:68) When a man cannot make a decision, he can't understand the differences between choices quite yet. He must understand the quality of each object and which influences him more. D'Holbach also states that choice does not prove that man has free will. He goes into deeper detail by saying a choice will always be determined by an outer motive not an entirely a decision of one's own free will. The outer motives are reasons he is making decisions, not himself. If free will was present, a choice would be able to be made…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Second order desire however, is the desire to desire. In other words, it is the desire to want or not to want something. Second order volition of the second order desire is is prevalent when a person wants whatever their first order desire is to be effective, they want it to be their will. In Frankfurt’s effort to define freedom, he embarks on the dilemma between freedom of action and freedom of the will. As he sees it, freedom of action can be performed without any reliance on freedom of the will.…

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Free will is clearly an ontological issue, but it is rooted in the metaphysical nature of reality. We should study free will because it is theologically significant and because many people assume a particular definition of free will that is incorrect. Studying free will is challenging because it is not defined in Scripture. Further, it is complex because it connects too many other larger theological issues; it intersects with philosophy, historical theology, and systematic theology. At the outset, it is necessary to get a clear understanding of what exactly "free will" is. A being has free will if given all other causal factors in the universe it nevertheless possesses the ability to choose more than one thing. The word freedom…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Freedom Is an Illusion

    • 1510 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Freedom is a concept that is held in high regard and cherished by the majority of people. We use this freedom every day to make choices concerning our actions and reactions to situations that we find ourselves in, whether that be the choice of what to eat, or more serious choices such as whether to abort an unwanted baby. Actions and decisions can be prevented or changed by circumstances beyond the control of the person, but by this point it is generally the case that a decision or choice has already been made by the person concerning the course of action that they were going to take.…

    • 1510 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays