Lec 18 Free will or determinism? (240 - 255)If when a man writes a poem or commits a murder, the bodily movements involved in his act result solely from physical causes, it would seem absurd to put up a statue to him in the one case and to hang him in the other. Bertrand Russell (in Why I am not a Christian)
• Are people free to do what they want? • Are they free to want what they want? • Is it all or nothing? • Is there such a thing as moral rsponsibility?
Acts freely done are those whose immediate causes are psychological states in the agent. Acts not freely done are those whose immediate causes are states of affairs external to the agent . W. T. Stace
The Incompatibility of Moral Responsibility and Universal Causation • Every event has a cause. • If every event has a cause, then every current action is part of a causal chain of events stretching back far into the past. • If every current action is part of a causal chain of events stretching back far into the past, then no one currently has control over what events take place. • If no one currently has control over what events take place, then people are not morally responsible for their actions or the consequences of those actions. • Therefore, people are not morally responsible for their actions or the consequences of those actions. (after Partee)
Rough definitions:
Determinism
The doctrine that every fact in the universe is guided entirely by law. (First posited as a theory of Atomism by Democritus) Everything that happens must happen exactly the way it happens because all matter is governed by laws of cause and effect. The doctrine of determinism asserts that in every case, without exception the result is determined by the previous conditions of the subject.
Indeterminism
Theory of the freedom of the will. That people (at least sometimes) have and make real choices
Fatalism
Determinism with a theological bent. That God predetermines all human activity
An Argument for Hard Determinism: • People are wholly a part of nature. • Every event in nature is determined by necessary and immutablenatural laws. • If (1) & (2), then every event involving people is determined by necessary and immutable natural laws. • If every event involving people is determined by necessary and immutable natural laws, then no one ever acts freely • Therefore, no one ever acts freely. (after Partee)
Opposing Arguments Argument from feeling of freedom 1. Sometimes I feel that my actions are free. 2. If sometimes I feel that my actions are free, then sometimes I act freely. 3. If sometimes I act freely, then hard determinism is false. 4. Therefore, hard determinism is false.
Argument from choice 1. Sometimes we choose an action. 2. If sometimes we choose an action, then sometimes we act freely. 3. If sometimes we act freely, then hard determinism is false. 4. Therefore, hard determinism is false.
Argument from self-control 1. Sometimes I choose contrary to my desires. 2. If sometimes I choose contrary to my desires, then sometimes I act freely. 3. If sometimes I act freely, then hard determinism is false. 4. Therefore, hard determinism is false.
Key Indeterminate Tenets • The principle of universal causation is false (i.e. not every event has a cause). • People sometimes act freely. • People are morally responsible for their free actions and the consequences of those actions. Indeterminist Argument From Moral responsibility 1. People are sometimes morally responsible for their actions 2. If people are sometimes morally responsible for their actions, then people sometimes act freely. 3. If people sometimes act freely, then hard determinism is false. 4. Therefore, hard determinism is false.
Lamont's Arguments for Indeterminism • Our intuition that our choices are free is so strong that it places the burden of proof on the determinist to show that they are not. • According to determinism, under the law we must view virtuous actions in the same way we view actions of insanity: the agent had no choice, but was compelled to act in a certain way. But we can't and don't view them that way, so determinism must be false. • Many words such as regret, forbearance, and self-restraint lose their meaning under determinism. Our use of these words suggest that we should believe in indeterminism. • Moral responsibility only makes sense if indeterminism is true.
Soft DeterminismOne Formulation of Soft Determinism A. Every event has an antecedent cause, but nonetheless B. People do sometimes act freely.
The Incompatibility of Moral responsibility and Universal Causation (worded slightly differently from the original)
• Every event has a cause. • If every event has a cause, then every current action is part of a causal chain of events stretching back far into the past. • If every current action is part of a causal chain of events stretching back far into the past, then no one ever acts freely. • If no one ever acts freely, then people are not morally responsible for their actions or the consequences of those actions. • Therefore, people are not morally responsible for their actions or the consequences of those actions.
Self-Determinism The idea that man can author his own future -- that at least some of his actions begin with him -- (somewhere between soft determinism and indeterminism) The problem of human freedom is confused somewhat by the distinction between the self and the will. The will is only the self in its active side and freedom of the will really means freedom of the self. It is determination by the self. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Spinoza
Kant
Existentialists
Quotations
Free Will
Free will is but an illusion. Anatole France
There is no such thing as free will. The mind is induced to wish this or that by some cause, and that cause is determined by another cause, and so on back to infinity. Spinoza, 1677
I confess that mankind has a free will, but it is to milk kine, to build houses, etc., and no further. Martin Luther
Freedom
The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anyone who is truly free. Jean Cocteau
I have never been free. The world, my kin, my neighbours have always enslaved me. Edgar Watson Howe
A hungry man is not a free man. Adlai Stevenson
The average man doesn't want to be free. He simply wants to be safe. H. L. Mencken
Man is condemned to be free. Jean Paul Sartre
He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason. Benedict Spinoza 1670
We have to believe in our free will: we have no choice in the matter.
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