Free Will Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Free Will - Essay Example So in an instance where a person is issued a threat his decision to act in a certain way need not necessarily be influenced by the threat and hence he holds moral responsibility since he was not deprived of alternatives. On the other hand, it is also possible that the person was profoundly impacted by the threat and his action was completely out of fear of dire consequences. But this impact was what compelled him to make his decision and therefore in relative terms his moral responsibility for his action still remains. Yet another possibility would be that the person’s choice of action was predetermined and any threat issued to him only coincided with his decision. Since the threat in this situation is irrelevant to the decision making process, he remains morally responsible for his action. The author’s argument is therefore a logical understanding of the principle’s plausibility and its failure as an a priori truth. His analysis concludes that there are various circumstances that could make a person morally responsible for his action with an exception being that he had done what he did only because he could not have done otherwise, even if that was what he desired to do.