4B - Concepts of Determinism

Who coined the term 'hard determinism'?

Who coined the term 'hard determinism'?

• William James

What is hard determinism?

• That everything that occurs in the universe has a sufficient explanation through causes and conditions - the law of cause and effect

• It is illogical to speak of 'free' will/choice ∵ everything = determined by causality

What are the three types of hard determinism you are required to study?
Who is each type associated with?

• Philosophical: John Locke

• Scientific (biological): Darwin, Weismann, Dennet

• Psychological (classical conditioning): Ivan Pavlov

Philosophical: Elaborate on Locke's comment that "Free will is an illusion".

• Events are based on universal causation: all human actions have a past cause ∴ all events are determined by an unbreakable chain of past causes

• People who believe they have free will are deluding themselves; they think this ∵ they stop to reflect before making a choice, but they are ignorant of universal causation, and do not have the intelligence to see that there are no choices to be made

• The future = as fixed/unchangeable as the past

Philosophical: What two distinctions did Locke make?

• Voluntary: caused by a volition
• Involuntary: without a volition (including actions preceded by the right kind of volition, but not caused by the volition)

Philosophical: What analogy did Locke use in Chapter XXI of 'An Essay Concerning Human Understanding'?

• Man in bedroom analogy

• "Suppose a man be carried out, whilst fast asleep, into a room where is a person he longs to see and speak with; and be locked in, beyond his power to get out: he awakes [...] and stays willingly [...] is not this stay voluntary?"

• In reality, he has no choice: it is an illusion of freedom.

• The ignorance of universal causation gives the feeling of free will

Scientific: What theory did Darwin and Weismann develop?

• Every living organism had a genetic formula, which Weismann called 'determinants' - later known as DNA
- Their findings implied that human action ≠ free: it is determined genetically

Scientific: How did the work of Darwin and Weismann develop into a determinist theory?

• Clear links can be seen between genetic faults and physical/mental abnormalities
• Biological determinists argue that the above statement should be extended further to say that all human behaviour = determined by genes

Scientific: Give an example of how someone's physical appearance can dictate their behaviour.

• Acne, obesity

Scientific: Give an example of how someone's mental capacity can dictate their behaviour.

• Down's Syndrome

Scientific: What is Dennet's idea of 'genetic fixity'

• That a person's behaviour is no more than their genetic makeup - any effort to change these behavioural patterns = useless

• Parents' DNA determines the child's DNA, which determines their characteristics and behaviour ∴ they are determined at birth

Scientific: Give two findings from the Human Genome Project (1990-2003) that support genetic fixity.

• Multiple genes can cause addiction
• 9 regions of the genetic code play a pivotal role in determining sexuality

What are the implications of scientific determinism?

• People = reduced to genetic robots, programmed by DNA
• Sometimes referred to as 'puppet determinism'

Scientific: What is the MAOA gene?

• The 'warrior gene'
• Has been found to be a determining cause of violence

What is psychological determinism associated with?

• Behaviourism

Psychological: What was an early behaviourist concept of determinism known as?

• Classical conditioning (aka reflex conditioning)

Psychological: Outline 'Pavlov's Dogs'

• Normal reaction of dog to food = produced saliva (unconditional reflex)

• Bell rung when time for food (neutral stimulus)

• Dogs began to associate bell with food

• Eventually, bell = rang but did not produce food - the dogs still salivated
∴ dogs = conditioned to produce the unconditional reflex of saliva to the neutral stimulus of the bell

Psychological: How did Pavlov define 'conditioning'?

• The subconscious repeating of behaviour to certain environmental conditions

Psychological: How did John Watson further Pavlov's work?

• Used a similar experiment on a baby, involving rats and a loud sound, causing the baby to cry

Psychological: Following the work of Pavlov and Watson, what did behaviourists postulate?

• That all human reactions = conditioned reflexes/responses associated with the environmental conditions of one's upbringing
- E.g. A child enjoys splashing in puddles; parent chastises them; child cries; develops an association between puddles and crying; walks around puddle in later life - they may feel that this is a free choice but it is a determined, conditioned response, as they are subconsciously repeating taught, conditioned behaviour

What was B.F. Skinner's contribution to psychological determinism?

• Operant conditioning: person = conditioned to repeat behaviour that is rewarded, but not repeat that which is punished
- E.g. rewarded for using toilet correctly

Give an introduction to soft determinism.

• Attempts to combine the opposing theories of hard determinism and libertarianism (soft determinists = sometimes called compatibilists)

• People = determined, but still free ∵ of our understanding of 'free'
- Being free = being able what you want to do without external coercion
- Human actions have causes (genetics, behaviour, etc) but we are free if our actions = caused by our choices rather than external forces

• Freedom requires determinism ∵ otherwise everything would be random with no explanation

• This view allows for moral responsibility, whilst hard determinism does not

Give two modern thinkers that support soft determinism.
What do they say about it?

• Kane + Vardy
• True freedom may never be achieved ∵ of the complexity of genetic/environmental influences, but this does not mean that it is impossible

What are the soft determinist theories of Hobbes and Ayer known as?
What do they argue?

• Classical soft determinism
• There is an element of freedom despite moral choices being determined by outside factors.

Give a quote from Schopenhauer about soft determinism.

• "Man is free when he chooses what he wants, but he cannot will what he wants"

Explain Thomas Hobbes' idea of internal and external causes.

• Internal cause
- Choice people make internally for themselves (their will)
- Both hard + soft determinists accept that these = 100% determined by causation, conditioning or genetics

• External cause
- When someone is forced to do something against their determined will

Hobbes: Explain internal/external causes in the case of classical soft determinism.

• The person = determined by internal causes but is free from external causes

• E.g. due to a determined internal cause, such as the genetic reaction to heat, a student had no choice but to take off their blazer in a warm classroom
- The person = able to take it off without hindrance, as they were free from external causes, such as a teacher stopping them

Hobbes: Explain internal/external causes in the case of hard determinism.

• The person = determined by both internal and external causes ∴ no freedom at all
• E.g. due to a determined internal cause, such as the genetic reaction to heat, a student wanted to take off their blazer but were hindered by an external cause, such as the teacher refusing to give permission

What link did Hobbes draw between a human and a river?

• A human = as free as an unimpeded river
- A river that flows down a hill follows a channel
- It is at liberty to flow within the channel
- Voluntary actions of humans = similar
- To be at liberty is not to be restrained, which is not the same as to be uncaused
- People = free ∵ all actions follow from will
- Actions = necessary ∵ originate from a chain of causes/effects

What did A.J. Ayer apply to determinism to empirically show the difference between soft and hard?

• Logical positivist theories

• He concludes from his studies of language that people make a language distinction between the two

Ayer: Explain how a soft determined event engenders the word 'caused'.

• When a person = only determined by an internal cause but not an external cause, the person will use the phrase 'caused'
- E.g. 'caused' by the genetic reaction to heat to take off their blazer

Ayer: Explain how a hard determined event engenders the word 'forced'.

• When a person = determined by both internal + external causes, they will use the phrase 'forced'
- E.g. 'forced' to keep their blazer on

What analogy did Ayer use to explain his idea of caused/forced acts?

• Said that if he walked across a room ∵ someone had compelled him, observers would conclude that he was not acting freely + that his 'forced' movement = completely determined

• If he walked without being compelled, observers would still assume it had a cause (as all actions must be willed by the person, even if our will = determined), but would not say he was 'forced' ∵ no external force

How is predestination different to determinism.

• Predestination: theological; can refer to just human human 'destination'; not necessarily the path along the way

• Determinism = philosophical; covers all human actions