Free Will vs. Determinism

“The Minority Report” functions as an in-depth exploration of the philosophical question of free will vs. determinism. Anderton is faced with a question: knowing that he has been predicted to murder a man he has never met within a week, will he commit the murder? Or does he have the option to change his actions and prevent it? One way of reading the story is by tracing the different ways Anderton answers this question. In the first half of the story, Anderton is convinced that he is being framed, that he has no intention of murdering Kaplan, and that he must exercise his free will to flee Earth for another planet and thus make it impossible for him to commit the murder. However, during the second half of the story Anderton is forced to grapple with the possibility that if he has been...