Truman Show- Freewill and determinism

Truman show is the movie that shows entire Truman's life. Truman lives in the world that is created by Christof, the director of Truman show.In the movie, Truman is given freedom within the world that is created for him. When we look at him from the outside of his world, he is forced to live within the enormous set of stage.

There might be theological challenge to Truman's freedom. In the movie, Christof acts as a God to Truman. He created the world for Truman, sets time, rises sun, and decides his family etc. He is always looking at Truman as God does. Therefore, Truman is not free because Christof can control Truman's action by changing his world which God can only do.

There might be scientific challenge to Truman's freedom. According to scientific challenge, everything that happens in nature has a cause. In the movie, the world is created by Christof which caused Truman to act in typical ways such as looking for truth, and lover. And Christof made this movie to entertain people which is another cause. Like this, every cause is chained to other cause.

In my opinion, Truman is free, because he does everything he wants. For example, he eats whatever he wants, he tries to find the woman he loves and he even seeks to find the truth. He can do everything that he wants within that world. According to compatibilism, he is free, because it's his desire to seek his lover and truth. He wants to love that woman and wants to know what the real truth is, so as compatibilist says that free act is an event caused by person's intention caused by an inner state of that person such as desire, Truman is actually free.

Agency theory would also say that Truman is free, but they would explain it differently. Agency theory believes that free action is an act caused by an agent. In the movie, the action and decision Truman make are free because Truman himself is intelligent being and therefore an agent. As agency theory believe that every event has cause, even though there is cause that triggered Truman to act in a certain way, his action is considered as free.

However, I think Truman is only free in the view of Truman, himself. When we try to analyze in the view of audience, Truman is not free at all. According to scientific determinists, a free action is an event having to do with a person's intentions that is without a cause. In this case, the world Truman lives in is created by Christof, which means he is the cause of how Truman acts and lives. He is the one that determines the life of Truman. And as the principle of universal causality says everything has cause and every cause is event, there is no freedom for human. Therefore Truman is not free at all in the view of audience.