Flashcards
Free Will and Determinism
Cards in this deck (30)
- 1Who was Clarence Darrow and what did he do?Darrow was a criminal lawyer who successfully protected two teenage boys from the death sentence for kidnapping and murdering a 14 year-old, on the grounds that psychological and environmental influences determined their behaviour, not a free choice between right and wrong. He used an analogy to animals, comparing the trial to that of a mother pig who has rolled over and squashed her piglets.
"Nature is strong and she is pitiless. She works in her own mysterious way, and we are her victims. We have not much to do with it ourselves." - 2What is Laplace's demon?Pierre Simon Laplace contended that if there was a vast intellect which could know all the forces that govern motion in nature, and the positions of all the items of which nature is composed, and could submit all these data to analysis, then "for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes."
- 3What does Harry G. Frankfurt argue?That the so called "principle of alternate possibilities"—that a person can only be morally responsible for an action if they could have done otherwise—is false. It gains credibility from the common-sense link between coercion and the PAP, but it is a mistake to think of the principle that coercion excluded moral responsibility as a special case of the PAP.
- 4What sorts of cases can show that "could have done otherwise" is not equivalent to coercion?1. Someone decided, for their own reasons, to do something. Then they receive a threat of harsh penalty, unless they do exactly that. They do it. Do we hold them morally responsible?
2. Black wants Jones to perform certain actions. However, Black only intervenes to coerce Jones to perform the action in question (the method of coercion is flexible), if Jones is not going to do the action of his own accord anyway. So Jones can never do otherwise than Black wants. Yet it may be that Black never intervenes—in this case, is Jones less worthy of praise or blame for what he does? - 5Who famously defended theological determinism (predestination)?John Calvin
- 6What is molinism?God does not know the actual future, but he knows every possible future. Thus we have the freedom to choose our future, but God's foreknowledge to, to an extent, preserved.
- 7What is the theological evidence for predestination?1. Scriptural evidence exists on both sides of the debate.
2. God's omniscience entails divine foreknowledge, which entails determinism and hence predestination. - 8What is the process theodicy?God can do anything physically possible rather than logically possible. We have an open future, and hence God's omniscience does not entail divine foreknowledge, and God can judge us fairly because we are not predetermined.
- 9What does Boethius argue on the question of theological determinism?God is eternal (outside of time) and so cannot have foreknowledge. Though God knows the future, we still choose it.
- 10Who has argued for genetic determinism?Steven Pinker
Tom Bouchard - 11Who has argued for psychological determinism (behaviourism)?Clarence Darrow
Ivan Pavlov and J. B. Watson (conditioning)
B. F. Skinner - 12What is Daniel Dennett's mammals regress argument?Every mammal has a mammal for a mother; therefore, if there has been one mammal, there have been an infinite number of mammals.
There haven't been an infinite number of mammals.
Therefore there are no mammals.
This argument goes wrong because it is not possible to draw the line at the point where mammals start existing. Similarly, it is not possible to draw the line at how far back in the causal chain you have to go for moral responsibility. - 13Who has argued for physical determinism?Ted Honderich
Benjamin Libet - 14What was Benjamin Libet's experiment?Participants connected to fMRI machines and brain activity monitored. A clock face with a moving dot is placed in front of them, and they are asked to note the time when they made the decision to press one of two buttons in front of them. By monitoring brain activity, the researchers were able to detect "readiness potential" that enabled them to predict 2 seconds in advance which button the participants would choose to press.
- 15What do Libet's experiments seem to show?That conscious decision making is not the initiator of the decision. The decision is made unconsciously, before the conscious mind becomes aware of it. So we have no conscious free will.
- 16What are Daniel Dennett's comments regarding the Libet experiments?1. Difficulties with the method—researchers have to go on subjective reporting of time of decision.
2. These "Libet decisions", made for no rhyme or reason, are not the sorts of decisions that we care about regarding freedom. - 17Why is quantum indeterminacy a poor defence of free will?1. Randomness is at least as bad as determinism in removing the decision making power from the free deliberation of the agent.
2. Quantum indeterminacy does not hold at the macro-level of the brain (decoherence). - 18How does Van Inwagen define free will, and what sort of definition is this?"The capacity to do otherwise than one does, all physical properties being the same."
This is a libertarian (incompatibilist) definition of free will - 19Which thinkers have argued for libertarian free will? Give a summary of the argument for each thinker.1. Robert Kane
2. Peter Van Inwagen
3. John Hick - 20What is the performative contradiction argument against determinism given by John Hick?If you believe in determinism, then you believe that you are determined to believe in determinism. Hence, you do not believe in determinism for good reasons. For a determinist, nothing is believed on the basis of reasons, only of causes. Thus it is a performative contradiction to argue for (i.e. advance reasons for belief in) determinism.
- 21Compatibilists must redefine free will (or at least define it differently from van Inwagen). According to compatibilism, what three conditions must be satisfied for an action to be free?(i) The agent does what they want
(ii) The agent is not constrained in so acting
(iii) Had they chosen otherwise, they could have done otherwise - 22What are Locke's three criticisms of libertarianism?1. The homunculus problem: if we have libertarian free will, we must initiate self-causation. But this is an incoherent concept.
2. The past has given us our preferences and thus determined our will, which then goes on to determine our actions.
3. According to Locke's metaphysics, powers cannot have powers. Only agents have powers. Thus "freedom of the will" is also an incoherent concept. - 23What is Kant's position?Kant believed in two metaphysical realms: the phenomenal realm (the world of appearances), and the noumenal realm (the world of things in themselves). The subject belongs to both realms. Hence, while my empirical self is subject to the laws of causality, my noumenal self is not determined.
- 24What is attitudinism, and who advocates it?Middle ground between compatibilism and incompatibilism. These viewpoints posit two different—but both meaningful—types of freedom. They reflect different attitudes towards moral responsibility, the former advocating the practical use of holding people morally responsible, and the latter affirming the retributive sense.
- 25What is the Consequence Argument for incombatibilism?"If determinism is true, then our acts are the consequence of laws of nature and events in the remote past. But it's not up to us what went on before we were born, and neither is it up to us what the laws of nature are. Therefore, the consequences of these things (including our present acts) are not up to us." —Van Inwagen
- 26What is the Basic Argument against free will, as expressed by Galen Strawson?(1) Nothing can be causa sui - nothing can be the cause of itself. (2) In order to be truly morally responsible for one's actions one would have to be causa sui, at least in certain crucial mental respects. (3) Therefore nothing can be truly morally responsible.
- 27According to Tim Mawson, in what two ways does the deterministic thesis better serve the needs of theology?1. Providence
2. Divine foreknowledge - 28What are some objections to theological determinism?1. Grossly unfair that some souls preordained to salvation and others to damnation. (The division between the Elect and the non-Elect).
—Response: Universalism
2. God becomes author of human sin and evil. (Response: compatibilism)
3. Problem of evil harder to solve - 29How can God be considered omniscient whilst not determining future human action.By thinking of God as eternal—outside of time. God knows how we will act because he observed us acting in this way from his timeless perspective. He does not know "in advance", so humans could still be free.
- 30What are the doctrines of Calvinism? (TULIP)1. Total depravity: as a consequence of the fall of man, everyone is enslaved into sin. Sin affects all aspects of a person's nature, including their will.
2. Unconditional election: God has chosen (predestined) some souls to salvation, others to damnation, not based on any foreseen virtue, merit, or faith in these people.
3. Limited atonement: only the sins of the Elect were atoned for by Jesus' sacrificial death.
4. Irresistible grace: when God sovereignly purposes to save somebody, then that person certainly will be saved (overcoming their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel).
5. Perseverance of the saints: since God is sovereign and his will cannot be frustrated, anyone who apparently loses faith never had true faith (was not set apart by God).
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- Pre-U Philosophy Pre-U (Paper 1) Flashcards on Free Will and Determinism, created by muon neutrino on 10/05/2018.
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