Harry Frankfurt An Introduction - 920 Words

Harry Frankfurt – An Introduction Harry Frankfurt is one of the most prominent defenders of a compatibilist view point of free will. He is the professor of emeritus philosophy at Princeton University. His major areas of interest include 17th century rationalism, actions, moral philosophy and philosophy of mind. According to Frankfurt, a person is a â€Å"specific structure of will†. He defined will in the terms of first-order desires. Following are the concepts of ‘First-order desires’, ‘Second-order desires’ and ‘Second-order Volition’ and ‘Will’, as described by Frankfurt: First-order desires First-order desire can be defined as the desire to perform some action. For example, a desire to go to the class of philosophy can be categorized as†¦show more content†¦It is a desire that one’s desire should be converted into the will of that person. The desire that I should desire to be in the class of Literature rather than Philosophy becomes effective to turn it into ‘will’ of actually being in the class of Literature. Free Will and Second-order Volitions A theory of free actions has been presented by Frankfurt in â€Å"Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person†. According to Frankfurt, it is true as well as useful to answer the question about whether the will of the person is free or not. He used a question of, â€Å"Whether an agent enjoys freedom of action† as an analogy to answer this question. He defined freedom of action as freedom of doing whatever one wants. On the basis of this analogy, the freedom of will can be defined as the freedom to want whatever one wants to want. This analogy also expands to define the free will. A person is free to will whatever he wants to will; or to have the will of whatever he wants. Therefore, the question of freedom of will is associated with the question that whether is it a will that he wants to have. It shows the conformity of one’s will to one’s second-order volitions. If one’s will are secured by the conformity to one’s second-order volitions, the free will is achieved. Compatibility of Free Will with Determinism The idea of free will, as presented by Frankfurt, seems to be completely compatible with the idea of determinism. According to Frankfurt, a person does not need to go for