PP Free Will and Determinism

8/13/2019 PP Free Will and Determinism

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Free Will and Determinism


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Destiny and Fate

Do you believe indestiny?

What are you destinedfor?


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Matrix

Morpheus:

Do you believe in fate,Neo?

Neo:

No. ... I dont like theidea that Im not in

control of my life.


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Minority Report

Do you have a choice?

Are you bound by fate?


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Fatalists

The Greek Fatalistsbelieved that life was atragedy and werehelpless victims of

circumstance.

Necessity and fatecontrols our destinies.


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Moral Responsibility

You are accountablefor your actions.

You can be praised forgood actions andpunished for badactions.

If there is no freedom,there can be no moralaccountability.

See Kant and Boethius


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Differing View Points

Hard Determinists

Everything is determined.

Libertarians Nothing is determined; we are free.

Soft Determinists

Some things are determined, but not reason.


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Hard Determinism

Hard Determinists

Everything isdetermined.


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Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)

In the mind there isno absolute or freewill; but the mind isdetermined to wish

this or that by acause, which has alsobeen determined byanother cause, andthis last by anothercause, and so on toinfinity.


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John Hospers

There are internal forcesand external forceswhich give us theimpression that we areacting with free will.

Action: I read Pride andPrejudice. External Force - I

have an exam on Prideand Prejudice.

Internal Force - I sawPride and Prejudice onTV.

Its all a matter of luck.


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Clarence Darrow (1857-1938)

Darrows defence oftwo men on trial formurder reduced theirsentence from death

to life.

Punishment aspunishment is not

admissible unless theoffender has the freewill to select hiscourse.


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Clarrence Darrow (1857-1938)

What has this boy todo with it? He was nothis own father; he wasnot his own mother;he was not his own

grandparents. All ofthis was handed tohim. He did notsurround himself withgovernesses andwealth. He did not

make himself. And yethe is to be compelledto pay.


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John B. Watson (1978-1958)

Watson suggested thatbehaviour can bepredicted and controlled. Psychological

Behaviourism.

If the universe isdetermined, allactions, ethical andotherwise, arecontrolled by priorcauses which are inprinciple knowable.

Nature and Nurture.


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Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

Conductedexperiments with dogsand bells.

Simple behaviourcan be controlled byconditioning.

Sophisticated

behaviour iscontrolled bysophisticatedconditioning.


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B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)

Worked on operantconditioning.

This looked at

behaviour in terms ofpsychologicalresponses toexternal stimuli.

The conclusionsshowed that ouractions areconditioned and thatwe do not actuallyhave freedom.


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Isaac Newton

Determinism is based inthe Newtonianparadigm that theuniverse is governed byimmutable laws of

nature. Like a watch!

If the universe is notmechanical, then theprinciples of cause andeffect areindeterminable. This does not

necessarily implyfreedom.


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John Locke (1632-1704)

A man wakes up in alocked room. Hedecides to stay wherehe is, not realising

that the door to theroom is locked. Theman thinks that hehas made a freedecision, but in realityhe has no choice.


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John Locke (1632-1704)

The causes of ouractions are so complexthat it appears thatwe have freedom.

In reality there is nofreedom.

Its like the weather

system; it appearsrandom but it is inreality complex anddeterminable.


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Paul-Henri Thiry (Baron) dHolbach

You say that I feel free.This is an illusion, whichmay be compared tothat of the fly in thefable, who, upon the

pole of a heavy carriage,applauded himself fordirecting its course. Man,who thinks himself free,is a fly who imagines hehas the power to movethe universe, while ishimself unknowinglycarried along by it.


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Ted Honderich (1933-)

If everything isdetermined, then theEmpiricist conclusions isaccurate: There is no self which

is the origin of youractions.

The mind is a by-product of brainactivity cause by psych-neural events.

There is no moral

responsibility. There is no Freedom.

There is nosoul/afterlife.


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Libertarianism

Libertarians

Nothing isdetermined; we arefree.


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In response to Darrow

Blaming externalforces for our actionsis regret.

We may not makeourselves but we domake our actions.

Human decisions andchoices cannot beproven to all becaused.


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Peter Van Inwagen

Life is a journey:

Determinists claim that thereare no branches on the road.There is only one set path foreach person.

Libertarians claim that thereare and we make choices.

It may seem as though wehad not choices, we madedecisions which brought ushere.


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Werner Heisenberg

The Heisenberguncertainty principle.

We cannot know both thelocation and momentum ofsubatomic particles at thesame time.

We should appeal toprobabilities rather thanformulate general laws ofcertainty.

The universe is in factunpredictable andindeterminable.


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Honderichs criticism

Heisenbergs principleapplies only tosubatomic particlesand cannot refute

Newtons mechanics.

Quantum Mechanicsqualifies Newtons

view and puts histheories into a broadercontext.


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The Quantum contradiction

Even if it were thecase that the universewas indeterminable,the opposite of

determinism would berandomness.

If the universe israndom, that does not

prove that we havefree will, only that ouractions cannot bedetermined at all.


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Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

Freedom is the goal andmeasure of our lives.

From nothing, man makeshimself what he chooses.

It does not matter what aman does with his freedom,so long as he acts freely freedom is an end in itself.

To do otherwise is toconform to the will of others;this is to be guilty ofmauvaise foi.

To be free is to becondemned to be free.


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Soft Determinism

Soft Determinists

Some things aredetermined, but notreason.


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Steven Pinker

Emotions have abiological (andevolutionary) basis.

Man might bepredisposed toviolence, but reasoncontrols thatpredisposition.

A moral sense is innatein us and as real for usas if it were decreed bythe Almighty or writteninto the cosmos.


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Immanuel Kant

Determinism appliesto everything which isthe object ofknowledge, but not

to acts of the will.

There are two types ofreason:

Pure (theoretical)Reason

Practical Reason


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Kants Pure Reason

This is how weperceive the world andhow we explain itscientifically.

Pure reason observesthe determineduniverse and so must

accept determinismto some degree.


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Kants Practical Reason

Practical reason concernsactions, the will and the waywe see ourselves.

Freedom is a postulate of

practical reason.

Our own self-awareness,without which the worldwould not make sense to us,forces on us the idea that

we are free.

We cannot abolish freedomwithout ceasing to seeourselves as the originatorof our actions.


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Not a compromise

Compatibilitism is aposition taken due tothe need to havesome accountability

and responsibility forhuman behaviour.

It is, as Kant puts it, a

postulate of PracticalReason. We are self-aware thinking beings,we require freedom.


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Voltaire, DictionairePhilosophique

Pear trees cannot bearbananas. The instincts of aspaniel cannot be theinstincts of an ostrich.

Everything is planned,connected, limited.


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Thomas Nagel,What does it all mean?

The sum total of apersons experiences,desires and knowledge,his hereditary constitution,

the social circumstancesand the nature of thechoice facing him,together with other factorsthat we may not knowabout, all combine tomake a particular action inthe circumstancesinevitable.


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Predestination

The Christian idea thatsalvation anddamnation arepredetermined by God.

This is not scripturaldogma, it is based oninterpretation ofrevelation.


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Augustine of Hippo

It is not by our ownmerit that we achievesalvation but throughthe grace of Godwhich is freely given.

Note Godsintervention in theministries of Mosesand St Paul.

This was contradictedby Pelagius and hewas branded a heretic.


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John Calvin (16thCentury)

Mans nature isultimately sinful.

It is only by Gods

intervention predetermined thatwe can gain salvation.

It is God who

permits goodnessand badness; thuswe cannot bepunished or rewarded.


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John Calvin (16thCentury)

Eternal life is fore-ordained for some,and eternal damnationfor others. Every man,

therefore, beingcreated for one of theother of these ends,we say, he ispredestined to life ordeath.

- Institutes of theChristian Religion Bk3

Ch21 s5

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