Ted Honderich Is a Representative

TED HONDERICH is a representative figure of the contemporary philosophical environment. Throughout his writings, he discusses the issue of determinism and the actual freedom of the individual. From his essays, however, there are certain distinctive aspects related to these terms which can be identified.

On the one hand, Ted Honderich considers that at the basis of our actions and choices, there lies a sense of determinism, as he considers that circumstances are the actual elements which determine or choices and the events that will happen in the future. He goes on to say that indeed each event in one's life has a definite and identifiable cause and explanation. Therefore, he points out the relevance of an already determined event through the mere consideration of the present circumstances.

This context however puts in balance the actual freedom of the individual. In this sense, taking into account the fact that choices are determined by circumstances, as Honderich argued, to what extent is the man free to decide for himself, and what is freedom in this context?

According to the philosophical views of Honderich, freedom means the possibility for one to express its own will without constrains from certain circumstances. More precisely, it included the manifestation of its voluntary choice. However, there are views that consider the idea of voluntary choices as voluntarism rather than control of one's life. In this sense the question then arises over whether the man can consider himself free and at the same time not have control over his choice.

The author tries to tackle this idea by suggesting his understanding of the notion of freedom. From his essay, freedom may be viewed as a sense of combination between the determinist view and the view based on the idea of choice. More precisely, the determinist view considers that actions are in fact a result of previous manifested circumstances and that freedom is not an important factor in the life of the individual precisely because they cannot surpass and avoid the power of circumstances. On the other hand, Honderich wonders whether indeed the determinist view is entirely correct, taking into account any possible considerations of the possibility to choose and the possibility to decide on a different path in a certain day.