4B Concepts of determinism Flashcards
Who coined the term ‘hard determinism’?
• William James
What is hard determinism?
- That everything that occurs in the universe has a sufficient explanation through causes and conditions - the law of cause and effect
- It is illogical to speak of ‘free’ will/choice ∵ everything = determined by causality
What are the three types of hard determinism you are required to study? Who is each type associated with?
- Philosophical: John Locke
- Scientific (biological): Darwin, Weismann, Dennet
- Psychological (classical conditioning): Ivan Pavlov
Philosophical: Elaborate on Locke’s comment that “Free will is an illusion”.
- Events are based on universal causation: all human actions have a past cause ∴ all events are determined by an unbreakable chain of past causes
- Ppl who believe they have free will are deluding themselves; they think this ∵ they stop to reflect before making a choice, but they are ignorant of universal causation, and do not have the intelligence to see that there are no choices to be made
- The future = as fixed/unchangeable as the past
Philosophical: What two distinctions did Locke make?
- Voluntary: caused by a volition
* Involuntary: w/o a volition (inc. actions preceded by the right kind of volition, but not caused by the volition)
Philosophical: What analogy did Locke use in Chapter XXI of ‘An Essay Concerning Human Understanding’?
- Man in bedroom analogy
- “Suppose a man be carried out, whilst fast asleep, into a room where is a person he longs to see and speak with; and be locked in, beyond his power to get out: he awakes […] and stays willingly […] is not this stay voluntary?”
- In reality, he has no choice: it is an illusion of freedom.
- The ignorance of universal causation gives the feeling of free will
Scientific: What theory did Darwin and Weismann develop?
• Every living organism had a genetic formula, which Weismann called ‘determinants’ - later known as DNA
- Their findings implied that human action ≠ free: it is determined genetically
Scientific: How did the work of Darwin and Weismann develop into a determinist theory?
- Clear links can be seen between genetic faults and physical/mental abnormalities
- Biological determinists argue that the above statement should be extended further to say that all human behaviour = determined by genes
Scientific: Give an example of how someone’s physical appearance can dictate their behaviour.
• Acne, obesity
Scientific: Give an example of how someone’s mental capacity can dictate their behaviour.
• Down’s Syndrome
Scientific: What is Dennet’s idea of ‘genetic fixity’
- That a person’s behaviour is no more than their genetic makeup - any effort to change these behavioural patterns = useless
- Parents’ DNA determines the child’s DNA, which determines their characteristics and behaviour ∴ they are determined at birth
Scientific: Give two findings from the Human Genome Project (1990-2003) that support genetic fixity.
- Multiple genes can cause addiction
* 9 regions of the genetic code play a pivotal role in determining sexuality
What are the implications of scientific determinism?
• Ppl = reduced to genetic robots, programmed by DNA
- Sometimes referred to as ‘puppet determinism’
Scientific: What is the MAOA gene?
- The ‘warrior gene’
* Has been found to be a determining cause of violence
What is psychological determinism associated with?
• Behaviourism
Psychological: What was an early behaviourist concept of determinism known as?
• Classical conditioning (aka reflex conditioning)
Psychological: Outline ‘Pavlov’s Dogs’
• Normal reaction of dog to food = produced saliva (unconditional reflex)
• Bell rung when time for food (neutral stimulus)
• Dogs began to associate bell w/ food
• Eventually, bell = rang but did not produce food - the dogs still salivated
∴ dogs = conditioned to produce the unconditional reflex of saliva to the neutral simulus of the bell
Psychological: How did Pavlov define ‘conditioning’?
• The subconscious repeating of behaviour to certain environmental conditions
Psychological: How did John Watson further Pavlov’s work?
• Used a similar experiment on a baby, involving rats and a loud sound, causing the baby to cry
Psychological: Following the work of Pavlov and Watson, what did behaviourists postulate?
• That all human reactions = conditioned reflexes/responses associated w/ the environmental conditions of one’s upbringing
- E.g. A child enjoys splashing in puddles; parent chastises them; child cries; develops an association between puddles and crying; walks around puddle in later life - they may feel that this is a free choice but it is a determined, conditioned response, as they are subconsciously repeating taught, conditioned behaviour
What was B.F. Skinner’s contribution to psychological determinism?
• Operant conditioning: person = conditioned to repeat behaviour that is rewarded, but not repeat that which is punished
- E.g. rewarded for using toilet correctly
Give an introduction to soft determinism.
• Attempts to combine the opposing theories of hard determinism and libertarianism (soft determinists = sometimes called compatibilists)
• Ppl = determined, but still free ∵ of our understanding of ‘free’
- Being free = being able what you want to do w/o external coercion
- Human actions have causes (genetics, behaviour, etc) but we are free if our actions = caused by our choices rather than external forces
• Freedom requires determinism ∵ otherwise everything would be random w/ no explanation
• This view allows for moral responsibility, whilst hard det. does not
Give two modern thinkers that support soft determinism. What do they say about it?
- Kane + Vardy
- True freedom may never be achieved ∵ of the complexity of genetic/environmental influences, but this does not mean that it is impossible
What are the soft determinist theories of Hobbes and Ayer known as? What do they argue?
- Classical soft determinism
* There is an element of freedom despite moral choices being determined by outside factors.
