Phil SL - Freedom - Determinism

Phil SL - Freedom - Determinism

1. Criticisms

   • Hume
     • the notion of causation is an error in human reasoning
       • causation comes from tendancy to expect things to happen
         • because of custom and habit
       • We witness constant conjunction of events
     • billiard balls
       • we never actually see causation itself
       • We see a ball come into contact with another
         • a sound, the other ball moves away
   • Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
     • we can't measure speed and position at the same time
   • Kant
     • We are conditioned to understand reality through cause & effect
       • doesn't mean noumena is deterministic

2. Law of universal causation

   • there is a nomoligical connection between every cause and effect
   • Everything has a set of causes
     • nothing but what has happened could of happened
   • Humans are material
     • therefore are affected by material laws

3. For

   • we always assume there is a cause, even if in principle
   • Laplace's Demon