See the axis · Freedom of the will

Argument

The impossibility-of-self-creation argument

To be the ultimate author of my choices, I would have to be the .

Supports

Galen Strawson · The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility · 1994

  1. My choices flow from what I am: my character, my desires, the reasons that weigh on me.
  2. But what I am, I did not posit out of nothing: it comes from my heredity, my history, circumstances I did not choose.
  3. To be its ultimate author, I would have had to create myself, hence to exist before existing: the regress has no end.

Therefore Since no one is the cause of themselves, no one is the ultimate author of their choices.

How far does this reasoning convince you?

Not at all
Entirely