While searching the internet for my next source, I came across an essay called “A Proof of Free Will” by Micharl Huemer of the University of Colorado. I decided to take a look into the essay and see what I could find. Mr. Huemer is a very strong advocate of free will. He often references to a subject called the MFT. The MFT is the minimal free will thesis. The minimal free will thesis states that at least some of the time, someone has more than one course of action that he can perform (Huemer). Mr. Huemer goes on to state that “the minimal free will thesis is the least that must be true if free will exists.” He says this because if there was always only one course of action, people would never have to making choices, thus, eliminating free will altogether.  According to Mr. Huemer’s essay, the counterpart to the minimal free will thesis is called determinism. Determinism states that the only thing anyone can ever do is the thing he actually does (Huemer). By this he means that we have no choices in life. According to determinism, we really have no control over our lives because all we can possibly do are the things that we do. Mr. Huemer goes on to state that “determinists hold that any person, at any given time, has one and only one course of action open to him.” He then goes on to argue about how if a student’s car breaks down he cannot make it to class. He states that that is a determinist statement because there are other options available to get the student to class. He used this example to reinforce the minimal free will thesis. 

I tend to agree with Mr. Huemer. Although I do believe that his essay was full of scholar’s jargon, he makes many good points. The minimal free will thesis is something that is very interesting to me. I don’t believe that anyone could argue that there is nothing in life that we choose to do or choose not to do, except for maybe be born and die. For determinism to be true, one would have to prove the MFT to be false, and I don’t feel that that is an achievable task. The MFT is interesting because it is only the minimal proof needed to prove that we have free will and it works perfectly. A person cannot argue that they have more than one way to get to work in the morning. A person cannot say that my car broke down and there is no other possible way for me to get to work.   As far as determinism goes, I think it is a bit absurd. It is difficult to argue that there is only one possible course of action for everything. I make choices everyday. When I wake up in the morning and go get a bowl of cereal I am not dragged by some supernatural force to the Cheerios. I sit and contemplate over my cereal. Maybe that is a bad example. Let me give a better one. This class for instance, is a perfect example that determinism is false. If determinism were true and my computer broke, I would not be able to  complete this class because according to determinism, typing this paper on this computer is the one and only course of action open to me. In reality, if my computer broke, all I would have to do is go to the computer lab and type this paper. The key to that is whether or not I would CHOOSE to go to the computer lab. You see, everyone has a choice in life. We all have the ability to choose different courses of action. There are very few circumstances where there is only one possible course of action. However extreme the alternative may be, there is still an alternative. If your car breaks down 100 miles from home, you can still get home. You have the free will to make choices that are going to get you home, one way or another.