The Need for Freedom

Abstract

AbstractFree will, in a strong sense, is essential: only so can we be responsive to the moral law. Yet Kant commits himself to determinism. The Groundwork seeks to show the reality of freedom, but it fails. The Critique of Practical Reason concludes that no proof is needed, but this does not resolve the tension with the causal determinism Kant takes himself to have established. There is however a major incompatibility, which Kant recognizes, between causal explanation and teleological explanation. The determinism of the first Critique is of the causal kind. Our understanding of one another—and Kant’s understanding of organisms—is teleological. We cannot prove that there is no place for teleology, and determinism is far from established. To suggest that whatever is uncaused is random indicates a misunderstanding of randomness. Free will fits well with common sense.