摘 要

自由意志一直是哲学研究中的热门话题。近年来，自由意志的研究主要从自由意志本身，以及自由意志和科技、道德、法律等其他因素的关系来展开。《少数派报告》是一篇科幻小说，讲述了未来的犯罪预测系统将有犯罪意图的犯人在实施犯罪之前逮捕，而作为犯罪预测系统的创始人安德顿却被预测即将杀死与自己素未蒙面的人，由此展开他和卡普兰的一场角逐的故事。本文主要围绕《少数派报告》中的自由意志来展开，在文献查阅和原文研究的基础上，从三个方面来探索：首先，在自由意志与科技中，科技束缚了自由意志，安德顿化被动为主动，将科技作为行使自由意志的工具，而卡普兰则从主动变为被动，最终为科技所左右；其次，在自由意志与道德中，传统道德观念束缚了自由意志，安德顿打破传统，选择犯罪，使事态靠向有利于自己的一面，而卡普兰的自由意志趋向于消极，最后迷失；再者，在自由意志与法律中，安德顿尽管曾经有过为了自己逃跑的想法，但他的思想最终还是屈服于测罪系统中的法律统治，相反，在卡普兰的观点中，没有系统的法律，只有他的意志，但最终也败于自我意志的迷失。由此可见，随着科技和人类的进步，人类自由意志的善与恶，个人利益与集体利益的权衡以及人类所应当承担的责任值得重视。

关键词：自由意志；少数派报告；科幻小说

Abstract

Free will has always been a hot topic in philosophy. In recent years, the study of free will mainly concentrates on free will itself, or its relationship with science and technology, morality, law, and other factors. Minority Report is a science fiction story about the future precrime system, which arrests criminals before committing crimes. When the founder of the system, Anderton, is predicted to kill a stranger, he launches a match with Kaplan. This paper mainly studies the free will of Minority Report. Based on the analysis of predecessors’ related research and the content of Minority Report, the paper is written from three perspectives -- firstly, science and technology constrain free will. Anderton uses the former as tools to exercise free will and changes himself from passive to active. By contrast, Kaplan turns from active to passive and ultimately succumbs to science and technology. Secondly, traditional moral concepts hamper free will. Anderton breaks traditions, chooses crimes, and turns things to his own side. Kaplan's free will tends to be negative, and finally loses. Thirdly, although Anderton once had the idea of walking away for himself, his mind ultimately still surrenders to the rule of the system. Oppositely, in Kaplan’s world of view, there is no law of the system but his will, the loss of which causes his failure in he end. In conclusion, with the development of science and technology and human evolution, the good and evil of human free will, the balance between personal interest and collective interest and the responsibilities of human beings deserve attention.

Key Words: Free Will; Minority Report; Science Fiction

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Introduction to the author 1

1.2 Literature review 2

1.3 Theory of free will 3

2 Free Will in the Science and Technology 5

2.1 Restricted free will in the science and technology 5

2.2 Disengaged free will in the science and technology 6

3 Free Will in Morality 8

3.1 Disappeared free will in morality-denying system 8

3.2 Regained free will in morality-denying system 9

4 Free Will in the Law 11

4.1 Obedient free will in the law of the system 11

4.2 Resistant free will in the law of the system 12

5 Conclusion 13

References 14

Acknowledgments 15

Analysis of Free Will in Minority Report

1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction to the author

Philip K. Dick (1928 ~1982) is a science fiction writer in the United States. He and his twin sister, Jane Charlotte Dick, were born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Their parents are Joseph Edgar and Dorothy Kindred Dick. He sold his first novel in 1952 and began writing full time. Although he was praised by famous science fiction writers such as Stanislav Lyme, Robert Heinlein, and Robert Silverberg during his lifetime, he rarely received approval from the general public and the literary world until he died.

Dick is a writer with a wide range of interests, including religion, philosophy, metaphysics, and neo-Gnosticsm. These elements also appear in his stories. In addition to the 38 books still in circulation, he also writes short stories and a few works published in magazines. At least seven of them have been adapted into films. His masterpiece, The Man in the High Castle, builds a new type of science fiction -- the Alternative History (fictional history), and also wins the 1963 Hugo prize for the best novel. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said is about a world famous man who wakes up with the same appearance in another parallel world is no longer a celebrity and no one even knows him. This novel won the best novel in 1975 John W. Campbell Memorial Award. In his stories, Dick likes to put people into a fictitious world, by which he caricatures reality ideas and systems.

Minority Report is a science fiction that satires the reality through a precrime system and advocates free will. The Precrime system aims to detain the criminals ahead of time, using the prophets that can predict the future and then communicate orally to the analysis processor. John Allison Anderton, the founder of the Precrime Department, is predicted by the prophet that he would kill an unknown person -- Leopold Kaplan, a retired General of the Army of the Federated Westbloc Alliance. Under the long-time control of the system, Anderton loses his free will and initially chooses to escape. Later, in order to prove his innocence, Anderton returns to the Precrime centre and regains his free will. Then, he realizes the incident is the conspiracy of Kaplan and autonomously decides to commit the murder to protect the Precrime system by utilizing the system's minority report.

1.2 Literature review

Since its publication, the novel has not received the deserved attention due to the following reasons. First, this novel is short and is included in Philip K. Dick’s short story collection. Second, the majority of Dick’s works are accepted by common people after his death. Therefore, the paper mainly analyzes two domestic and three foreign researches on Minority Report.