Determinism

Determinism

1. Clarence Darrow

   • "punishment is not admissible unless the offender has free will to select his course"
   • External forces caused the boys to commit that crime

2. Predestination

   • Augustine and Divine Election
     • Whoever receives God's grace would ultimately do good and therefore be saved
   • John Calvin
     • God decides independently of a persons qualities or actions.
       • He chooses who will be saved and who will go their natural ways, ie sin
     • "He does not create everyone in the same condition but in eternal life is for-ordained for some, and eternal damnation for other." (Institutes of Christian Religion)
   • Critiques
     • Arminius- "predestination was contrary to God's gift of free will."
     • Antinomianism, if predestination is true there is no obligation to follow the moral law
     • Predestination completely goes against the teachings of Jesus and the bible in general.

3. Hard Determinism

   • "Everything in the universe, including all human actions has a cause which precedes it"(Palmer)
   • Ted Honderich
     • Nothing happens without reason (Aristotle), and the reason for everything is out of humans control
       • Everything a human does, is because of what has already happened
         • Humans aren't morally responsible for their actions
   • Pierre-Simon de Laplace
     • Every human action could be predicted if every single factor was known
     • "Human beings are like complicated bits of machinary....the performances of which are theoretically predictable once these factors are known."
   • Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza
     • "Those who believe that when they speak, or are silent, or do anything else from a free decree of the mind, dream with their eyes open." (Spinoza)
     • Freedom is an illusion of the mind
   • John Locke
     • A man is in a locked room but he wishes to remain in the room, not knowing it is locked
       • We believe our actions are free, but they are not

4. Role of Science

   • John Watson
     • We live in a deterministic universe, everything is based upon cause and effect
       • Nature
         • "The inheritance of a body and certain psychological features
       • Nurture
         • Manipulation of a man's surroundings could effect his behaviour
           • Pavlov
             • Conditioning dogs
           • Zimbardo
             • Stanford Prison Experiment
   • Karl Marx
     • Working people were controlled by structural effect of society
   • Thomas Sowell
     • "human self is infinitely plastic, allowing humanity to be changed."
       • Defended by Clarence Darrow