Flashcards
Soft Determinism
Cards in this deck (19)
- 1What is soft determinism?a mid-way compatibilist theory that states while we are compelled by external factors we still have ultimate freedom in making moral choices
- 2What do they say about the relationship between free will and determinism?that determinism does not rule out free will and that the two can work along side each other
- 3What is determinism incomprehensible without?human freedom and moral responsibility, this misconception of incompatibilism comes from confusion over what we mean when we say we are free
- 4What is freedom incompatible with?fatalism (the idea that everything is entirely determined by fate)
- 5What is freedom with determinism ?- human freedom cannot be understood without determinism because our choice is one of the causal factors
- most human choices are a combination of internal and external causes - 6What are internal causes?lead to voluntary actions of free will, the results of one's own wishes or desires, such as the you leave your country freely because it is your desire to go abroad on holiday
- 7What are external causes?lead to involuntary actions of compulsion, contrary to one's wishes or desires, such as when you leave the country because you are deported
- 8What do soft determinists mean when they say a person acted freely?they did not act under the compulsion or external pressure - but acted as free agents even though their actions were just as much caused as those that are not free
- 9What do they define free will as?the liberty of spontaneity; the freedom to act according to one's nature which is determined by external factors
- 10How can freedom be compatible with oral responsibility?if wishes and desires are counted among the causes of actions
- 11What is the view of David Hume?every act has to be causes or there is no chance of freedom;
if someone couldn't have acted otherwise bc compelled by external factors - not morally responsible
if someone couldn't have acted otherwise bc compelled by internal restraints - not morally responsible
if action was result of freely held desires then are fully responsible - 12What does soft determinism not do/it doesn't combine hard determinism and libertarianism as it doesn't limit free will but it also accepts the issues of responsibility and punishment
- 13Who else accepted soft determinism?Kant; he said that determinism applies to everything which is the object of knowledge but does not apply to the individual will - the two are too radically different to both operate on one theory
- 14What does he note about types of reason?there are two types;
1. pure reason; knowledge and the scientifically explicable world (external)
2. practical reason; actions of the will (internal) - 15How does he attack hard determinists?saying there is no reason behind an act of will, that pure reason is determined by external factors while practical reason allows us to make free decisions as it is not determined
- 16Show how soft determinism allows for moral responsibility?e.g. if Bob doesn't save a drowning child because he cannot swim, he is not morally responsible, it is not his fault, however if he can swim and chooses not to save him due to personality/past experiences, he is morally responsible
- 17How did John Searle argue for soft determinism?"a gap between having reasons to do something and actually doing it"
implying that there is a gap in our minds between thought process and action, he switched from being determined to acting freely - 18How did Michael Palmer criticise soft determinism?"among the factors that determine our actions, we count our own choices as desires"
saying that there is no differentiation between internal and external causes - everything is determined - 19How would both hard determinism and soft determinism argue against soft determinism?by saying that the theory fails to understand the degree of determinism and the degree of freedom in our lives
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- Free Will and Determinism Flashcards on Soft Determinism , created by Zoe Bone on 24/04/2017.
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- Zoe Bone
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