Ethics: Determinism

Overarching name for Determinist views

Traditional Hard Determinism

Three types of Determinism

- Scientific determinism

- Psychological behaviourism

- Theological determinism

Scientific Determinism

Based on evidence from the natural & applied (newer) sciences, e.g. psychology & sociology

Psychological Behaviourism

- Human behaviour is caused (mostly) by environmental conditions

- All actions are conditioned by previous ones

What is Traditional Hard Determinism based on ?

Universal causation

Universal Causation

Nothing is random and nothing is free

What do many Hard Determinists adopt?

Reductionist approach

Reductionist approach

Human behaviour can be reduced to the laws of physics

Hard Determinism views

- Apparent lack of cause for some actions = Due to ignorance

- Freedom to choose = Illusion referred to by Spinoza as "dreaming with our eyes open."

Psychological behaviourism origins

Early 20th Century studies of Pavlov on canine digestive glands

Psychological behaviourism scholars

Watson & Skinner

PB view of free will - Watson

- People would feel free because they were doing what they wanted.

- Free Will = Non-empirical "mentalist constructs" that were therefore of no use in scientific enquiry.

Difference between Watson & Skinner

- Watson focused on fear

- Skinner preferred positive reinforcement

Shared view of Watson & Skinner

Claimed that "conditioning by the carrot or the stick" could lead to changed behaviour.

Criticisms of Skinner's theories

- Human behaviour is much more complex than that shown in animal studies

- If everything is a set of conditioned responses, then his theory is just a response

Spinoza Hard Determinism quote

"Men think themselves free on account of this alone, that they are conscious of their actions and ignorant of the causes of them."

Theological Determinism

The focus on predestination to show that we do not have free will; God's omniscience is causative.

Theological Determinism scholars

Augustine, Calvin & Aquinas

Aquinas' solution to Theological Determinism

- God's omniscience is not causative

- God exists timelessly and so simply knows

- Actions stemming from free choices cause God's timeless knowledge.

Process theology view of predestination

God exists in time and so cannot know the future or our actions, so we are free.

Theological Determinism quote - Norman Geisler

"Moral determinism makes God immoral and makes humans amoral."