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Freedom and Responsibility

When you'll study it
Semester 2
CATS points
15
ECTS points
7.5
Level
Level 4
Module lead
Andrew Stephenson
Academic year
2025-26

Module overview

Human beings have free will, and that is why they are responsible for their actions and choices. Or so we tend to think. But is it really so? Are our choices and actions not determined by factors outside our control—are they not the inevitable upshot of causal processes that start at a distance from us? If so, doesn’t this show that free will is an illusion, and that nobody is responsible for what they do? Embracing this conclusion would radically change the character of our relationships with others. This module aims to explore the question of what it would be to have a free will, to consider in light of answers to that question whether we possess such a thing, and to examine the connections between freedom and responsibility.