Is it still considered "free will" if all but one of the choices given to you have severe consequences?

This is a situation that comes up in philosophy, law, and religion.

 

In law, it can be described as a person holding a gun to the head of another person who, in order to avoid being shot, must shoot another person. In law, as far as I know, the first person is using the second person as a proxy for the murder and thus is guily of murder instead of the person that ended up actually shooting.

 

In religion, this is like the concept of God giving free will to people so they can make choices for themselves...excpet, if they make the choices that God doesn't like, they are punished for all eternity. This is effectively removing the option to choose those unfavored options unless you want to end up suffering forever. It's at such an unreasonable level, that the choices shouldn't have been given in the first place.

  Topic Philosophy Subtopic Tags free will philosophy religion law
3 Years 0 Answers 1.7k views

Nicholas G

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