In the novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess the main character goes through some major changes mentally, by way of conditioning. This brings up debate in whether his actions are his own free will or is he just a machine acting out what he is programmed to do.

Conditioning is a process of behavior modification by which a subject comes to associate a desired behavior with a previously unrelated stimulus. An example would be of Pavlov and his dogs, each time Pavlov would feed the dogs they would salivate. Each time he fed the dogs he rang a bell until eventually without food he could get the dogs to salivate without presenting them with food but merely ringing a bell. In A Clockwork Orange Alex is conditioned by being forced to watch violent acts after he is injected with a serum used to make him sick. The treatment goes on unti

Anthony Burgess is making the point that it is inhuman for Alex to not be able to make his own decisions and only through free will and moral progression can he overcome it. Burgess links maturity with moral progression and the making of your own decisions

If a human can not make a choice between good and bad, is that person really human? This is the question that is asked now. If Alex cannot make the choice to do wrong is it really his choice? What makes him better than any machine now that he cannot make his own choice?

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