Chapter 6: Free WIll and Determinism

Burdan's Donkey

Thought experiment by Jean Buridan who argued humans must do whatever presents itself as the greatest good.

Alternative Possibilities

Free will means that when humans are presented with multiple options, we can select whichever option we wish

Free Will

the starting positions can lead to various outcomes

Ultimate Sourcehood

Free will means we are the source of our own actions. It is up to us whether our actions occur or not: they are not caused by factors outside us and beyond our control.

Biological Determinism

says that biological factors such as genetic makeup not only determine our height but completely determine how we act

Responsibility

states that humans are responsible for their actions, but they can only be responsible for their actions if they control whether they commit the action or not, mental causation must be true

Theological Determinism

says god is all powerful, and has absolute power over human action and ultimately determines out actions

Determinism

given the starting position, only one possibly outcome can occur

Cultural Determinism

sociological factors such as public institutions, family values, peer influence and social media completely determine how we act

Leopold and Leob

two wealthy teenagers who committed a murder in the 1920's by dismembering another person. Their defense was that they were determined to commit the murder, so they cannot be blamed. "Nature is strong and she is pitiless. She works in her own mysterious say and we are her victims... what had this boy to do with it?"

Reductio ad Absurdism

objection against hard determinism. states that a belief leads to the absurd conclusion, so the belief is false. The belief of hard determinism leads to the absurd conclusion that we are not responsible for our actions, so hard determinism is false

Reactive Attitudes

Objection to hard determinism. we blame and condemn others for doing bad things, and praise other for accomplishments. Why would we do this if everything is determined? the belief in hard determinism leads to the absurd conclusion that our reactive attitudes make no sense anymore so hard determinism must be false.

Saul Smilansky

also a contemporary hard determinist but Objects to Perebooms view that the loss of free will is no problem. He says that hard determinists hide the truth of determinism from the masses in order to preserve the fabric of society "People as a rule ought not to be fully aware of the ultimate inevitability of what they have done..."

Microphysical Casual Determinism

the arrangement of particles in the remote past, combined with the laws of physics, completely determines how we act

Benjamin Libet

Developed experiment where participants had electrodes placed on scalps to measure neural activity in their brains. He found that the initiation of the voluntary act appears to be an unconscious cerebral process. Determinism is proved bc our brains already knew what they were going to do

Psychological Determinism

The view that all thoughts, feelings, and behavior, no matter how mundane or insignificant, ultimately have an underlying psychological cause

Incompatibilism

determinism and free will are opposed and therefore cannot think they are both true

Hard Determinism

is persuaded by the argumentation supporting determinism, so they take determinism to be true and free will to be false

Baron Henry d'Holbach

Hard determinist who embraces determinism by saying that our behaviors' is ultimately determined by natural causes beyond our control, which we mistaken for free will.

Derk Pereboom

Contemporary hard determinist. He agrees that the hard determinism implies the loss of personal responsibility for our behavior, but that is not absurd. Ie patients with infectious diseases are quarantined

Quarantine Model

Quarantining patients with deadly diseases for public safety relates to jail

Libertarianism

Free will is true and determinism is false

Arbitrary

Makes our decision making appear based on luck and randomness

Rollback Argument

supposes that undermined actions are not free bc the agent cannot control the outcome of her decision

Self-Forming Actions

occur when we are torn between two competing motivations, both of which we have reason to do, and we choose one course of action over the other

Quantum Physics

Kane says that this shows us that microphysical states are ultimately indeterministic, so libertarianism is compatible with contemporary science

Compatibilism

belief that says free will and determinism can be true at the same time. Is suported by reasons for free will and determinism

Consequence Argument

compatibilism faces this: we can do nothing to change the arrangements of particles in the remote past, and we can do nothing to change the laws of nature

A.J. Ayer

Compatibilist who argues that the ability to do something that we want is compatible with determinism

Constrained

occurs when we want to perform some act but cannot do it

Compulsion

occurs when we are forced to do something we do not want

Harry Frankfurt

rejects principle of alternative possibilities by providing the Jones and Black example: Black controls Jones and makes Jones kill someone

Peter van Inwagen

"if determinism is true, then our acts are the consequences of the laws of nature and events in the remote past. But it is not up to us what went on before we were born and neither is it up to us what the laws of nature are". Consequences are not real and we have no power over our actions, so compatibilism is not true

Robert Kane

Contemporary libertarian that agues that we choose freely when we are the ultimate source of our actions.

Wanton

does not have any second order desires but only first order desires

Unwilling Addict

Desires the drugs, wants to not act on his desire for the drugs, but can't help himself. He can't act on his second order desire. He is not free because he can't act on his second order desire.

Willing Addict

is addicted and desires to be addicted. he is acting on his second order desires so he is free

Principle of Sufficient reason

to which every event, including every human action, can be completely explained or has a sufficient cause or reason for its existence

Reid

Believes in free will and having the ability to choose between alternative possibilities.