free will

Question 1

determinism definition

Answer 1

the claim that every event is caused

Question 2

fatalism definiton

Answer 2

whatever happens is unavoidable.
Fatalism is often misunderstood as things being fated (or predetermined) to happen. But this implies some agent – God – who is predetermining everything.
weaker claim than determinism

Question 3

what is the free will thesis?

Answer 3

the claim that we have free will.

Question 4

incompatabilism- agency theory

Answer 4

there are 2 kinds of events:
agent events – these are events that are brought about by agents (like us) and the causal chain ends with us.

‘regular’ events – these are things like trees falling and water flowing that are part of a larger causal chain.

Question 5

what is moral responsibility?

Answer 5

In order to be morally responsible for doing X, I must have freely chosen to do X.

1) If our actions are caused by events that are out of our control, then we cannot be held morally responsible for our actions.
2) Our actions are caused by events that are out of our control.
C) Therefore, we cannot be held morally responsible for our actions.

Question 6

objective attitude definiton

Answer 6

treats an individual as an object to be dealt with, not so much a moral agent. We might have this attitude towards small children or mentally disabled people.

Question 7

“attitudes aren’t affected by the truth of determinism” justification?

Answer 7

1 the attitudes are inescapable
2 they don’t swing with the truth of determinism
3 even if we could give up on moral responsibility, we shouldn’t

Question 8

Galen Strawson

Answer 8

incompatabilist
1) If we’re responsible for our actions, then we must be
responsible for our character.
2) We can’t be responsible for our character. Therefore, we can’t be responsible for our actions.

Question 9

libertarianism definition

Answer 9

in order to be morally responsible for something, we would need to have caused our actions in some sense.

Question 10

what is agency theory?

Answer 10

there are two kinds of events:
1 Deterministic events: these are ordinary events in the universe that are going to be determined by the structure of the universe prior to that event.
2 Agency events: these are events that are caused by agents – entities like us. Since an agent is an enduring substance, it can actually cause certain events without being caused itself. (After all, a substance isn’t
an event, so it doesn’t need a cause in the relevant sense.)