Free Will and Determinism
How free are we to choose? Why does it matter?
David Hume - the power of acting or not acting according to the determination of the will. If we choose to remain at rest, we may and if we choose to move, we also may
Thomas Hobbes - no external constraints stopping you from making a free
Laws of physics and the land
Moral responsibility implies you have responsibility for your actions Praise for good actions and punishment for bad actions No freedom = no moral accountability
Hard determinism - everything has a cause and freedom is an illusion
Soft determinism/compatibilism - something's are determined but not reason
Libertarianism - choice is real and we are actually free
we're puppets of cause and effect. No act can be originated. Â Everything is a result of cause and effect
Philosophical Determinism
Pg 198 - the fly on the cabbage
Freedom is an illusion, and we're carried along  by the forces of the universe i.e. nature
We are able to act when we act when we can translate mental choice into doing or not doing something Freedom is a further power to perform the actions we chooseHuman freedom is a capacity to act even when our wills have been determined In the end Locke Seems to imply tust free will and determinism can co exist But our choices are determined, so no real freedom
'In the mind, there is no absolute free will, but the mind is determined to wish this or that by a cause, which is also been determined by another cause. And this last by another cause, and so on to infinity'
If everything is determined, then the Emoiricist conclusion is accurate
There is no self which is the origin of your actions
The mind a by product of brain activity causd by psychoneural events
There is no actual moral responsibility
There is no freedom, soul, or afterlife
'There can be no such hope if all the future is just an effect of effects'
'States of the brain are, in the first place, the effects of other physical states...all actions are movement caused by states of the brain' ---- Essays on Freedom of Action
The world works according to physicals laws that we can understand on the basis of physics, laws that we can understand on the basis of experimental evidence
So everything that happens is the results of cause and a effect
So there is no real freedom
The world is like a mechanism
It's workings are understood in the terms of the laws of nature
Newton was not necessarily a determinist, but he was very important in setting up the model of cause and effect)
âLaplace and Determinism
Laplace's daemon: a hypothetical (imaginary) daemon
It knows the precise location and momentum of every atom in the universe
It can use deterministic principles to reveal the entire cause of cosmic events, past present and future
If one could know all the causes of operations in the world
Then having known one single event it would be possible to demonstrate everything that had taken place before it, and everything that would take place after it
We have no free choice because we are part of matter, and everything made of matter is a result of cause and effect
Is the mind part of the physical world?
If my mind is related to my brain, then electrical impulses in my brain are part of a closed mechanical system
Psychology and Determinism
All human behaviour, thoughts and feelings, are the inevitable outcome of complex psychological laws
Hereditary - Genes - Biology
- Defended two men on trial for murder, reducing their sentence from death to like- Punishment as punishment is not admissible unless the offender had the free will to select his course: he argued they had no free will
Behaviour can be predicted and controlled - psychological behaviourism
All actions, including ethical decisions, are controlled by prior causes
Behaviour was determined by three things:
Conducted experiments with dogs and bells
Showed that simple behaviour can be controlled by behaviour
Sophisticated behaviour can be controlled by sophisticated conditioning
Worked in operant conditioning
This looked at behaviour in terms of psychological responses to external stimuli
Shows that actions are conditioned in that we have no free will
Behaviourism and Psychology
Freud and Laplace were hard determinists - will and conscience come from our upbringing
Skinner argues we are conditioned to behave by experiences (Pavlov's dog). So we can condition new types of behaviour
JB Watson argues that if we can change their behaviour
Biological Determinism GeneticsRichard Dawkins
Emotions such as anger, sympathy and love all have a biological basis
Moral reasoning is a result of natural selection
Libertarianism aka Incompatibilism
Free will has to mean real choice
We have real choices to make
We are morally responsible for our actions
Blaming external forces for our actions is regret
We may not make ourselves, but we do make our actions
Human decisions cannot be proven to all be caused
Reason gives us freedom - we have the ability to reason, and that gives us freedom
If we can make a rational choice, we must be free
This means our decisions are not determined
The Garden if Forking Paths
If I deny I have free will, I give up the struggle I often face when seeing two paths diverging ahead. Saying you have no free will denies you the whole experience of choice
Determinists claim that there are no branches on th road. There is only one set path for each person
Libertarians claim that there are branches and we make choices
Jean-Paul Satre Existentialist
A choice is free if it could have been other than it is - if we could have taken a different path the choice is free. The possibility of doing more than one action makes it a choice
Freedom is the goal and measure of our lives
From nothing, man makes himself what he chooses
It does not matter what a man does with him freedom, so long as he acts freely - freedom is an end in itself
To do otherwise is to conform to the will of others
'To be free is to be condemned to be free'
Soft Determinism // Compatibilism
Some things are determined, but not reason
A voluntary action is free
Every act has to be caused, otherwise it's chance not freedom - I had to be in school until sixteen, then had the choice to carry in and do A Levels
Determinism applies to everything which is the object of knowledge, but not to the arts of the will
Pure reason - how we perceive the world with our sense. For Kant, this is determined (and theoretical)
Practical reason - our inner understanding
Practical reason concerns actions, the will and the way we see ourselves
Freedom is a postulate of practical reason
Our own self-awareness, without which the world would not make sense to us, forces on us the idea that we are free
We cannot abolish freedom without ceasing to see ourselves as the originator of our actions
Christianity and Determinism Predestination
Based on the idea of God determining everything because He is the ultimate cause of everything
The Christian idea that salvation and damnation are predetermined by God
This is not in the scriptures, but it is based on the interpretation of revelation
In Judeo-Christianity, humans are free and autonomous
Seen in age sis where Adam and Eve exercise free will in housing to eat forbidden fruit
They're held responsible for their actions by God and are punished
After the fall, we are inclined to do evil
We need to turn to God for help
It is not by our own merit that achieve salvation, but by the grace of God
Note God's intervention in the ministries of Moses and St. Paul
Humans are free to choose good or sin
"Man chooses not of necessity but freely"
Man has free will otherwise counsel, exhortations, commands, prohibitins, rewards and punishments would be in vain
Something's act without judgement as a stone as a stone moves downwards; and in like manner all things which lack knowledge and reason
As brute animals. For the sheep, seeing the wolf, judges it a thing to be shunned, from a natural and not a free judgement, because it judges not from reason but from natural instinct
But man act from judgement , he judges that something should be avoided or sought...as man is rational, it is necessary that he has free will
Pelagius - free will is the highest human attribute
Arminius - God freely chooses to restrict his power so that we have free will
Boethius - God's foreknowledge is outside of time. Gods omniscience is beyond the confines of this linear knowledge
Predestination Determinism
Idea that God has already decided who to save and who not
Comes from Bible - St. Paul who said "for those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son"
God is all powerful and all knowing
God already knows who will be welcomed into heaven
"The eternal decree of God... He does not create everyone in the same condition
Implies God decides this at creation
"Eternal life is foreordained for some, and eternal damnation for others. Every man, therefore, being created for one of the other of these ends, we say, he is predestined to life or death
Doctrine of omniscience means God knows everything
Tension between God who knows everything and freedom
Problem of whether if event 'x' occurs, then God knows about it or if the action happens because God made it happen
The latter restricts freedom and thus moral responsibility