Free will and Determinism

Free will and Determinism

1. What is determinism?

   • Most people agree that people are morally responsible only for the actions they carry out freely and deliberately. Determinism however, states that there are laws of nature which govern everything that happens and that all our actions are the result of these scientific laws and every choice we make was determined by a situation immediately before it and so on. Freedom of choice is just an illusion and so personal responsibility is a meaningless concept, as are blame and punishment. This makes it difficult to make any sense of the idea that people are held morally and legally responsible for their actions carried out freely and deliberately.
     • However, we do feel a sense of responsibility for what we have done even if we did not choose that action; for example, a driver who kills a child who ran out in front of his car would blame himself for the death, even if it was not his fault.
   • Hard determinism - accept determinism and reject freedom and moral responsibility
   • Libertarians - reject determinism and accept freedom and moral responsibility
   • Soft determinism/compatibilism - reject the other two views that free will and determinism are incompatible and argue that freedom is not only compatible with determinism, but actually requires it

2. Determinism

   • Determinism states that everything in the universe has a prior cause, including all human actions and choices. This means that all our decisions, viewpoints and opinions can be best understood when translated into the neutral language of natural science. This view has a long history and may be seen in the fatalism of Greek tragedy, in which people are the helpless victims of circumstances,.
   • Predesdtination
     • Determinism can also be seen in some versions of Christian predestination: the total irrelevance of our actions in this life as God has already decided whether we are saved or not. The doctrine of predestination was formulated by theologians such as Augustine Hippo and John Calvin, and is based on the idea that God determines whatever happens in history and that man has only a very limited understanding of God's purpose and plans. This idea is not based on words or particular passages in the Bible but on ideas about revelation, and has to sit by side with teachings about individual freedom and responsibility. According to Augustine, people need the help of God's grace to do good, and this is a free gift from God, regardless of individual merit. Consequently, God alone determines who will receive the grace that assures salvation
   • Hard determinism
     • According to hard determinism, all our actions had prior causes - we are neither free nor responsible. Hard determinism is incompatible with free will and moral responsibility, and as all our actions are caused by prior causes we are not fee to act in any other way. A person is like a machine, and if a machine is faulty it just needs fixing. The same applies to a person. A person cannot be blamed for their violence; violence either needs fixing or, if this fails, the person needs imprisoning to stop their violence impinging on others.
     • Ted Honderich
       • Ted Honderich is a 20th philosopher that accepts hard determinism, he calls on us to affirm a true belief - that is, one that is rational and corresponds to our understanding of the insight of neuroscience and how the brain works
       • In his 'essay on freedom of action' he argues that there are 3 states of the brain. He says that when making a decision to do something, we think we are free but in fact we aren't because all along we were always going to do one ting that our brain states have decided. For this reason, Honderich argues that we are not free.
         • Mental determinism
           • Honderich believes that the mental events that we understand as thoughts, choice and intentions are actually the same as neural events. We believe that there is a self inside us 'a ghost machine' but this is a mistake, it is an illusion to allow us to believe we are free.
         • Initiation determinism
           • What ever label we might give to our identification of a cause of our action, non the less all these are just effects of effects. Something that occurs before we make a choice. We believe we have made a choice based on beliefs,desires or intention, but it is due to an effect that has caused an effect (cause and effect).
         • Action determinism
           • Honerich argues that we are aware of desires and intentions within us. The desires come in two forms: a volitive desire and a appetitive desire. Appetites are pre determined by perceptions of pleasure and pain, volitives are our determination to do something
       • Honderich argues that we restrain our moral attitudes and feelings towards actions which harm and cause pain. We hold people accountable by expression of disapproval. But to seek to harm them in return for the harm they did to us is to impare a view of origination on them which we can no longer believe in.