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Free will and determinism - Coggle Diagram
Free will and determinism
libertarianism
Polkinghorne : things can no longer be determined at subatomic level - quantum theory inherently breaks strict determinism
Kant - one ought to follow objective moral laws we discern, ought implies can, free will to follow or not to follow moral law - we have autonomy - "freedom and the unconditional practical law imply each other"
BUT : ought may not imply can
Pink : we seem to experience free will - if this is not infallible guide in case of free will why should it be for causation
BUT : biological examples of cause and effect but not for free will, experience is too relative as self-referring
William James - pragmatist - determinism is logically tenable but not a useful belief to hold - more useful to believe in free will
BUT : does not actually account for existence of freedom
BUT : determinism could be deemed useful as tells us of how people/the world work
Sartre : humans can not escape choice making, fact of our existence and ability to make choices precedes any intrinsic human nature - need free will to create essence
Kierkegaard : even by choosing not to choose, we still choose
hard determinism
Biological determinism
Pinker : free will reduced to intuitive sense of morality reduced to being a product of evolution(ary benefits of emotion)
Skinner : behaviourist : free will is an illusion - we act as a result of our upbringing - if action has good consequences more likely to be repeated
Libet : brain activity initiates movement hundreds of milliseconds before conscious decision - cannot control how brain reacts to what we see
do not have free will, but have 'free won't" so we can consciously veto a decsion
J.L. Mackie : reductive physicalist - we think and decide with our brains - every mental event has prior brain event
brains are physical objects - all physical events have prior physical causes - every brain event has prior brain event so must be caused by brain event that precedes them
physical determinism : every event has an antecedent cause, all physical things subject to this law
evidence : boils laws of gases, newtons laws of motion and gravitation (demonstrate regularity and predictability of universe)
CRITICISMS
quantum theory - states are indeterminate
nauroplasticiry - brains are constantly changing and not fixed
adverse childhood - forms neural pathway - people develop mechanisms which may become maladaptive - BUT these neural pathways can be changed (takes 2 years) suggesting ability to ovveride brain
BUT : likely there are physical events/causes for wish to change brain pathways
incompatible with religion
descartes dualism - mind is separate so not subject to physical laws
LIebniz's law of identity - brain states and mental states have different properties so must be different
BUT : how do they interact, dualism criticisms
Ryle : mind is composed of body and brain not an overarching power - 'category mistake'
Hume - we cannot make inference from observed to unobserved as world remains unpredictable - problem of induction - we project regularity onto world
if we assume Y always will follow event X, l cannot say that Y is caused by X – only that the two are correlated. Fallacy : cock crowing causes the sun to rise: we can only say that when the cock crows, the sun rises.
soft determinism/compatibilism
free will and moral responsibility compatible with determinsm
Hume : believed in determinism of the will, but we have freedom of whether we act according to that will
liberty is being free to act as we will - but passions provide us with impulse our reason then satisfies
Frankfurt 'style cases' : mechanism inserted in patient brain to control activity - doctor decides patient will vote republican (makes no changes if they would already have done this, changes wiring if they would have voted democrat)
patient was already going to vote republican - Frankfurt claims patient is responsible despite having no option to do otherwise
BUT : flickers of freedom - as two options still available (i.e. doctor intervenes despite result being the same)
BUT : disanalagous as in analogy person does not have other choice as mechanism would get in the way, while determinism other choice is entirely impossible as act already set so still have no free will
Hobbes : man is free like a river - river flowing down a hill follows a channel, but at liberty to flow within channel
theological determinism
calvin
humans in total depravity due to original sin - God predestined who will be saved - elect - and who are damned - reprobate
BUT : why act morally if fate is fixed, removes moral responsibility,
BUT : not indicative of loving God - NT focus on forgvness - why dive commandments people can not fulfill
Kant - should be able to achieve summer bonus with reasoning skils
grace is irresistible - cannot lose faith once granted
if not predestined - undermines God's omnipotence
Luther - God offers his Grace to everyone - up to individual to accept - more indicative of loving God
places emphasis on free willl - resistible Grace
BUT does this undermine God's omnipotence
BUT : maintains idea we do not have spiritual freedom which seems contradictory
or does this align with idea we are made in God's image with a level of freedom
Pelagius : we inherit free will not original sin (excuse for moral laxity)
BUT : crucifixion pointless
BUT : Jesus a moral exemplar
God would not have set moral standard we can not fulfill
BUT : Sermon on the mount too idealistic??
could criticise view we have a soul to enter heaven in first place
Moral responsibility
Daniel dennet
"free will is our capacity to see probable futures" - emphasis on ability to deliberate between choices
need conception of free will for moral responsibility - justified in holding someone responsible even if they had no alternative option
should act as if we have free will - nefarious surgeon : patients told they had no free will more likely to be criminal
Principle of alternative possibilities : individual only morally responsible if they could have done otherwise