The debate about free will and determinism has been going on for centuries. It affects all our ideas about human actions or human choices in economics. Can we have "science of choice" that does not fall under this scheme ? This is the question that Professor James M. Buchanan fails to analyse in his book "What should economists do ?" in Page 40.
He says "the old age
issue (an old age philosophical dilemma)". "I
prefer to think that the subject and discussion itself not illusory". He
also says that "I am neither competent nor interested in detailed
etymological inquiry".
Is
it possible in economic theory to predict what will happen in the future, does
this mean that we are not free?
Determinate World:
No Choice (Not Allow Freedom, Coerced Choices): Choice predictable. No Choosing
or deciding process. No free will.
Indeterminate World:
Choice (Allow Freedom). Choice is not predictable. Free Choice/Free will.
Unconstrained/Free Choices (of average or representative person).
Free
will:
Where there is free choice (a) Person is the sole author of the act of
choice (b) Person could have chosen otherwise.