Mellan frihet och nödvändighet : Immanuel Kant och Baruch Spinozas syn på fri vilja och determinism

Sammanfattning

This study compares and analyses the philosophers Immanuel Kant and Baruch Spinoza’s view on free will in relations to determinism and moral responsibility. The study´s object is to analyse how Kant and Spinoza define free will, how they view determinism, and how free will can be viewed from the perspective of moral responsibility. The study is conducted through a qualitative thematic text analyses of the primary sources Critique of pure reason and Ethics. The result show that Spinoza represents a strict deterministic position, where peoples experience of free will can be viewed as an illusion caused by ignorance. Kant takes a more complex position where a person can be understood both as determined through the causal orders of nature, and as free through her reason.