Free Will: Philosophical And Psychological Studies

The dissertation is an empirical study of the issue of free will with a philosophical motivation. The subjects of experimental investigation are Chinese college undergraduates and criminals and the empirical data of their attitudes to free will are analyzed and discussed.The empirical study includes three parts.1. Collecting and comparing scores of undergraduates and criminals on free will scale.2. Exploring the effects of different conditions on subjects'responses to some questions linked to free will compatibilism. 3. Investigating the correlations between the scores of free will scale and those of state-trait anxiety scale and self-report depression scale. Here are the main results.1. Undergraduates'scores on free will scale are unrelated to whether their universities belong to the "211 project", whether they come from countryside, their genders and majors, but are related to their grades; criminals'scores on free will scale are unrelated to their marriage conditions, whether they have intentions of escape or suicide, but are related to their ages, education levels, and terms of jail; Scores of undergraduates are significantly higher than those of criminals.2. In different situations, subjects make diverse responses on free will and determinism, moral responsibility, while undergraduates'responses are different from those of criminals.3. There is a low negative correlation between undergraduates'scores on free will scale and anxiety, depression scales; there is a low negative correlation between criminals' scores on free will scale and anxiety scale.On the basis of existing theories and the above results, explanations are provided. Some discussions are also made, which include the cross-cultural similarity as well as cultural differences of the free will concept, its formations, folk insights on compatibilism, philosophical implications of relative psychological studies, and different attitudes on free will in psychology.Two conclusions are drawn.1. As to the central issue'whether there exists the free will which is independent of proceeding psychological and physiological conditions, or undeterministic', the libertarians seem to be disadvantaged. Nevertheless, no matter what the above disputing result implies, at least the free will that is independent of outer limitations but dependent on inner motives and goals of agent, self-deterministic does exist.2. Psychological studies about free will contribute to relative philosophical debates, which clearly show that we do need free will. Even if the free will that is independent of proceeding psychological and physiological conditions, or is undeterministic, doesn't exist, but being a hypothesis, just as other scientific hypotheses, the effects of this concept lie on its explanation and usage that help us to understand society, which appear both in scientific studies and our everyday life.