ToK Essay so far...

-- Keep in mind that this is a combination of an essay and notes at the moment... mostly I'm explaining stuff to myself and using extreme points of view to provoke myself into writing something--

Introduction
Do we as humans have the capacity to choose our actions?
Summarise each, discuss question (and importance), blah.
Important – moral responsibility, important in human society, legal/moral consequences – if people have no choice as to how they act, then they can't be held responsible. Social accountability assumes that we do have this free will to choose between doing the right thing and the wrong thing.

What is free will? (definition)
So-and-so defines free will as saying "the agent [the person acting] has the capacity to choose his or her course of action". Free will isn't just doing whatever you want, it's choosing which of the things you want is the best. Choosing between first and second order desires (or third, fourth, whatever).

Free will:
we're totally in control
we're morally responsible
if we had complete free will…
If we have free will, and we are completely in control of our choices and actions, then we are also completely morally responsible for the consequences of those choices.

Some philosophers call being able to choose not to follow our first impulses free will. (connects paragraphs/sections – or, put in one or the other. Probably second)

1st and 2nd order desires:
1st = impulse
2nd = what we want to want/review – "is this a good idea, or a bad idea?"
2nd is what constitutes free will, controlling thoughts and impulses

There must be a will before there is voluntary action.
The impulse is the first thing you want to do in reaction to something, or when faced with a choice. People don't necessarily act on impulse. Second order desire is what stops people acting impulsively. A second order desire is a desire to want to do something, or a desire for a first order desire. So the first order desire is what you immediately want to do, and the second order desire is what you want to want to do, what you feel you should do (what you feel is morally right or socially acceptable), or what reason tells you you should do (e.g., delayed gratification – wait longer for more rewards, as opposed to impulse of taking less straight away).

Free action – free will is nothing if you can't act on it
Free action is more like freedom; more what people define as freedom. Free action is the ability to act on a choice made by free will. If you decide, using your free will, that you want to, say, go to the shops, then free action is being able to go to the shops, without being stopped by any physical (or psychological) impediment.

Determinism:
Mini intro – 'lots of theories bla bla'
P+L=F (given a set 'p' or 'past', and a set 'L' or 'laws of nature', there can only be one 'f' or 'future'; there is only one way that things can turn out and it is all decided from the beginning of everything… big bang/whatever)
On a smaller scale: upbringing, environment, biology, psychology…
Theological determinism – does God have some big plan? (In which case, do our individual choices and actions matter?)

Determinists argue that action is predetermined. On a large scale, this is often argued with the logic that given a set past, and set laws of nature, there can only be one future; one way for things to end up. On a smaller scale, our choices can be determined by the way we're brought up, by our environment, by our biology, our psychology, or anything else that limits the options we have (elaborate).

(Free will affected by tastes, limit experiences by values and blah, could be for free will or for determinism)

Compatibility/Incompatibility:
if A is action, then changing A changes P or L somehow – we do have free will, and if we could choose to do something different in different circumstances, or if P or L were different – reasoning = choosing = acting
We have no free will at all because everything is determined OR we have complete free will because nothing is determined (incompatibility)

Can we have free will if determinism is true?
No: We might think we're making free choices, but they've been determined by something that's happened before (or a lot of things that have happened before).
No: We do have free will, and determinism isn't true. (We can alter the outcome by choosing to act in a different way)
Yes: Determined end, free will means. So our actions are up to us, but it will all end up the way that deterministic logic says it has to. Individual actions have individual consequences, but in 'the grand scheme of things', it's all irrelevant. Individuals can make their own little world, but they're not here for long, and they're not taking up a lot of space, so they're not really going to have a major effect on the outcome of whatever.

Conclusion: