B- Concepts of determinism Flashcards
The Incurable Romantic- Frank Tallis (brain activity)
- debated whether we were free
- said every brain state is determined by a preceding brain state. our choices are in fact inevitable- we are only free to make the choices we end-up making
- lab studies show brain activity associated with performing action starts approximately half a second before subjects are aware of decision (Libet experiment)
The Incurable Romantic- Frank Tallis (scientific determinism)
- subatomic level- brains might not function deterministically
- preconditions are capable of producing many alternative outcomes. even if we reject scientific determinism, probably less free than we imagine.
- we don’t choose our DNA (neurotransmitter levels, hormones), our parents, our early life experiences (as a young child, choices are limited)
- human beings shaped by many factors eg. does someone ‘choose’ to be a paedophile.
- is free will just an illusion?
Hard determinism
- hard determinist believes that there can be no freedom, because everything is completed determined in some way.
- materialist view- understands physical world to be only reality that is mechanistic in quality
- free will is impossible- incompatible with free will, also called an incompatibilist- no exception to laws of cause and effect, cannot exist with free will.
- no uncaused events
Soft determinism
- believes we are determined, but this can still allow for some elements of freedom to co-exist.
- determinism is compatible with free will- compatibilists (without contradiction)
John Hospers
modern hard determinists claim that there is always something within us that urges us to make a choice that we believe was a result of our free will.
we aren’t always aware of any ‘urging’ in our choice making, however, we have all probably made choices and not remembered why and how we have made them.
Analogy of man in locked room
Philosophical determinism- John Locke’s universal causation
- All of our ideas are based on experience, not reason. Experience shows that all events have causes. Universe is a chain of causes (universal causation)
-> synoptic link with cosmological argument
Future, therefore is fixed, determined and predictable (to someone who knows all the causes)
Philosophical determinism- John Locke’s illusion of free will
“Free will is just an illusion” - view that because everything that happens is the result of a cause that came before it, determined to happen in a certain way.
Freedom is “an active power, which originates in the human mind, to make a real choice”
Philosophical determinism -> John Locke- our experience of free will
- Just an illusion- we do not recognise or know all the causes leading up to an event
- our reflection on being free is what creates this illusion. Our reflection deludes us into thinking we did something freely (eg. man in locked room)
- there are no choices to be made at all. What will be done, will be done.
- William James described this as an “iron block universe”
Philosophical determinism -> JP Sartre- existentialism
- philosophy that emphasises individual existence, freedom and choice.
- humans define their own meaning in life, and try to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe.
- no God, no meaning in universe- only way to counter nothingness is to embrace existence
- human being thrown into a concrete universe that cannot be “thought away”. First man finds that he exists, then he tries to find meaning. Existence comes before essence.
- “Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself”
Philosophical determinism -> JP Sartre -> response to God
- God exists = man is not free, man is free = God does not exist.
- did not think we should mourn the “loss of God” as an atheist- life has the meaning that each man sets for himself. detach to give authentic meaning.
- rationality is a form of “bad faith”- attempt to impose structure on an irrational and random world.
- bad faith hinders true freedom. confines us to conventional living and everyday experience.
- existentialism asserts decision making based on meaning rather than rationality.
- total responsibility of yourself
Philosophical determinism -> Sartre quotes:
“But if you can deny with so much effort, that you have freedom, then you must have it!”
“Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself”
Philosophical determinism -> Sartre’s perspective of freedom
- denying our radical freedom and trying to explain it away, is an act of ‘bad faith’, the worst possible ‘sin’
- in denying freedom, we act inauthentically as human beings. Only the free choices we make can give our lives their meaning.
Philosophical determinism -> Analogy of the waiter
