Core Theme Determinism

Question 1

Fatalist Belief

Answer 1

Richard Taylor Argument
P: Everything must be true or false
P:If something is true it was always going to be true
C: All actions are predetermined

Question 2

Basic determinsm

Answer 2

P: Brains are physical.

P: All physical things obey the laws of science.

C: All physical things follow the laws of cause and effect.

P: Brains make thoughts (even if we’re not sure how).

P: If Brains make thoughts then thoughts must be caused physically.

C: Everything that we think, and therefore everything we do is caused by physical changes in the brain that happened in the past that we have no control over.

Question 3

Compatibilism

Answer 3

Compatibilists argue that determinism is compatible with a voluntary definition of free will.

Question 4

Compatibilism Example

Answer 4

Allan looks at Britney and decides to kill her for his own reasons nanoseconds before we were going to activate the chip and make him kill her

It was Allan’s choice.
Allan is responsible because it was his choice.
Allan couldn’t have done otherwise, because if he’d tried we would have activated the chip.
So Allan was determined.
So Allan is responsible and determined.

Question 5

Incompatibilism

Answer 5

If we accept determinism is correct then our actions have causes that existed before we were born.

All events are causally linked back to the big bang. So free will and determinism are incompatible, and origination is the correct definition of free will.

Question 6

MacIntyre

Answer 6

‘rational behaviour’ is crucial to an act being considered free rather than determined. Someone is behaving rationally “is defined by the possibility of altering it”.

determinism, in some way forces propositions to fail the justified element of justified true belief and therefore is self-defeating, as it was always going to be so it was pointless.

Question 6

Hampshire

Answer 6

Hampshire accepts that inanimate objects are determined.

Our ability to experience ourselves as free in the sense that we can imagine other outcomes suggests that we should think differently about determinism.

Question 6

Eccles, Popper

Answer 6

For him the strictly causal, totally predictable world view required by determinism is fatally undermined by acts of creativity.