The Truman Show is one of the most famous philosophical movies of the past century. It is about a man who lives, in a world he believes is real. He has his childhood friends, wife, family, and anything he could ever wish for. He is the All-American guy, until one day when he notices that the world he lives in is a bit weird, to say the least. This sparks an adventure which helps him realize that his life is only a studio set, in the form of an entire city enclosed in a dome. He is the star of the longest running show in history, and everyone watches him. Nothing around him is real. It is all orchestrated by the creator, Christof, who decides what fits into this city of Truman. His friends are actors, his neighbors are actors, and even his parents are actors. So the question remains, was Truman ever free?
To answer this question, we have to take a look at freedom. What is the definition of freedom? According to dictionary.com, it is the “exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.” and “the power to determine action without restraint”. Was Truman ever in power to determine an action without restraint? According to many people, he was in complete power even though everything surrounding his life happened according to the script. He could have left the set at any point. He could have conquered his fear of water and sailed off into the “moonlight”; the only problem is that he never did. Personally, I agree that Truman was indeed free. Let’s examine what philosophical views agree to this opinion.
The four main philosophical views that are found in Philosophy for Dummies, are: Scientific Determinism, Indeterminism, Compatibilism, and Agency Theory. Each of these four philosophical perspectives have the following in common: a point of view on The Principle of Universal Causality, its own definition of free action, and a unique answer to “Was Truman ever really free?”. The Principle of Universal Causality is summed up in two major points (a and b). It states: every event (a) has a cause, and (b) thereby stands in a causal chain with a long history.
The first philosophical view on freedom is scientific determinism. People who believe in this view, believe that a person’s free action has to do with something that has no cause behind it. Because the scientific determinists state clearly that it believes in The Principle of Universal Causality, there can never be such a free action, and thus no free will. According to scientific determinism, Truman was never free to do any choices, because no one is ever free. I would argue against this point of view because Truman actually showed that he was quite adventurous as he talked about the Fiji islands. He said, “You can’t get any further away before you start coming back. You know that there are still islands out there where no human being has ever set foot.” Even though Truman’s life was actually controlled and restricted, he was dreaming about using his freewill doing some quite different.
The second philosophical view is indeterminism, also known as simple indeterminism. Indeterminism is a branch from the libertarian way of thinking. People who believe in this, find the question about freedom almost like a joke. They find freewill so obvious, that they don’t know why people question the idea, and they also think that The Principle of Universal Causality is not based on any facts, so it shouldn’t be called a scientific piece of work. Since our freewill is so obvious, we don’t have to have an event that was caused by something. They believe that if something happens, it just happens. Indeterminism would say that Truman was free. He is a human being, and being that, he is free. Truman was free, even when he was inside the dome, where people watched him every day of the year, and people interfered in his actions and will, like when they tried to stop Truman from leaving the dome.
The third philosophical view is compatibilism. Compatibilism is a view that says that we are all free. Even though they believe this, they have very different reasons for their opinion comparing with the indeterminists. Compatibilists believe that every action has to do with The Principle of Universal Causality. They say that all events occur with an inner cause. For example, if we feel the urge to scratch our foot, we do so because we are free to do so, but at the same time ,that action made is connected to a long chain of other events, which helped us to make the decision to do that certain scratching of the foot. We are free, but we are also connected to The Principle of Universal Casualty. So according to compabilists, Truman was free to do any of his actions done in and outside of the dome. Even though he was free to do any action he wanted, those actions made would have been affected by the actions of the past. So maybe if his father wouldn’t have “drowned” in the storm, Truman would have decided earlier to take the risk and sail off on the ocean. All actions are connected, even though we have the freedom to make the choice to perform an action. In other words, Truman was free, and he could leave the island if the series of event accepted it; still Truman was maybe never fully free if he lacked options of choice.
The fourth philosophical view is agency theory. This view has become more and more popular throughout the past few years. It states that we are all free, no matter who we are or where we are from. The agency theory has a very unique answer to The Principle of Universal Casualty; it believes in half of that principle. The agency theory says that every event is caused by an agent, but doesn’t follow a long chain with a long history behind it. This is one of the points which makes the agency theory differ from all the other philosophical views on freedom. So then the question is, who is an agent? Anyone can be an agent! The agency theory would also have a strong view on the freedom of Truman. It would say that Truman is free, as he could do any action if he pleased to do it. He can change his position in life at any given point, without needing a long chain of events to ignite an event. If he really wanted to leave the dome island city, he could’ve left, if he wanted to. As Truman started to get suspicious and paranoid, and started questioning. He became an agent who started the event that led to his own freedom.
In conclusion, there are many philosophical views on the term freedom. Freedom is: “exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.” and “the power to determine action without restraint”. I believe, and so do many more, that Truman was free all along, even if he lived in a dome controlled by a director, named Christof, security officers, and actors. Out of the philosophical views, only the scientific determinists say that Truman was absolutely not free; there isn’t a free action without a cause. Compatibilists would say that he was free to do what he wanted to do, and that a free action is an event with an inner cause. Compatibilists are unique as they also believe in the Principle of Universal Causality. That leaves indeterminism and agency theory, which both states that Truman was free. Indeterminism would say that free action is an event without a cause. Agency theory would state that that a free action is an event caused by an agent, that does not follow a long chain of events. Personally, I believe that Truman was free to perform his own actions and will.
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