PHL105Y5 Lecture 20: Free Will
Document Summary
Darwin: what difereniates humans from non-human animals is only a mater of degree. Cant explain human transcendence: moivates a religious aspect of human nature having a spirit/soul part of humans that is beyond our nature. An individual human being can step back from patern of life given to him by natural selecion: imagine diferent ways of living and acing and create those alternaives. Natural selecion can explain why we are creatures with the ability to transcend our given nature: but it cannot explain what we are ater we create those possibiliies. Roughly, a human being is an animal with a free will. More precisely, a human being is an animal with the ability to relecively evaluate and determine its nature. A human being chooses his own ends (goals, pursuits) and doesn"t blindly choose the ends given to him by nature or his upbringing or her society. Human being is an animal with second order voliions.
