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Ethics > Free will and moral responsibilty > Flashcards

Free will and moral responsibilty Flashcards

1
Q

Incompatibilism

A

View that Determinism + Libertarianism are incompatible.

We are either free or determined

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2
Q

Hard determinism

Belief + desire + temperament = action

A

View that all events + situations, including human decagons + actions are the necessary consequence of previous events. (we are not free- external force)

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3
Q

Scientific determinism

A

Form of hard determinism that is based on evidence from natural + applied sciences

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4
Q

Psychological behaviourism

A

View that human behaviour is caused predominantly by environmental conditions + that all actions are conditioned by previous ones.

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5
Q

What is free will?

A

-Hume defines free will; “ A power of acting or not acting, according to determination of the will” 1748 sect viii
-The power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one’s own discretion.
-UK law has 3 levels of legal responsibility to recognise complexity of sentencing;
no responsibility
Diminished responsibility
Full responsibilty

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6
Q

Sam Harris

A
  • He is an atheist + determinist
  • Similar concept with Freud.
  • Claims that thought is conditioned, “we are just conscious witness’ of our minds.” (Bystander)
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7
Q

Sam Harris quote

A
  • ” Free will is an illusion… we exert no conscious control” From one of his talks
  • Reason that’s its an illusion: mental lives gives us sense of freedom.
  • We don’t control brain events, + brain events gives us rise to mental events (simply biology of the brain.)
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8
Q

What’s his analogy?

A
  • Choosing a city
  • it is motivated by experience + freedom, so there is no space for freedom, + no actual free decision.
  • Reason is consciousness;
    we have mental lives so we feel free- however we cant be free if brain events that makes us aware yet we have no control over them. Thus, just biology of the brain.
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9
Q

Proof of determinism

A
  • Benjamin

monitored electrical impulse, people looking at a screen can see mental decision before the person know their self.

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10
Q

Example : 2 boys
Jon Venables + Robert Thompson
(relate to Sam Harris)

A
  • 2 10 year old boys from Merseyside tortured + murdered 2 year old James Bulger.
  • Both came from dysfunctional families.
    -E.g: Both had fathers who had left + uncapable mothers
    Thompsons mum was known as an incompetent adult.
    Conclusion
    -Extreme case: cant deny their background had some part to play
  • EG: In less extreme cases we make excuses -“he’s not moody, he’s depressed. His relationship just ended”
  • We make casual links for peoples behaviours’. We aren’t prepared to “excuse” everything
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11
Q

Who was Spinoza?

A
  • Continental rationalist(School of thought) on epistemology (How we know stuff)
  • Believes feeling of freedom was ignorance
  • Inspired Einstein
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12
Q

Who was Spinoza?

Determinism

A
  • Continental rationalist(School of thought) on epistemology (How we know stuff)
  • Believes feeling of freedom was ignorance
  • Inspired Einstein
  • Built his idea on the rationalist theory of Descartes.
  • Not an atheist, brought up in a Jewish environment
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13
Q

Define event causation

A

No physical event can occur without having been caused by a previous physical event.

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14
Q

Define agent causation

A

An agent - A being propelled by a mind- can start a whole chain of causality that wasn’t caused by anything else.

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15
Q

What is Spinozas argument?
Substance monism

Spinoza claims that we interpret God anthropomorphically.

A

1- Claimed that one (1) infinitive substance- God or nature (totality of existence- the more we understand the world around us the more we know God) - is the only substance that exists.
(There is only 1 true substance)
2- Claimed that God is a projection of the imagination, humans have portrayed God with human attributes (anthropomorphism). God isn’t supernatural or transcendent. (our view of God fails eg:Torah)
- Used the analogy of a triangle, to support human claim. As if a triangle could talk it would obviously claim God = triangle.

Thus freedom is from knowledge + Happiness is aligning our will with universe. God causes everything.

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16
Q

Evidence of spinoza

A
  • ” If a triangle could speak, it would say… that God is eminently triangular”
  • ” In the mind there is no absolute, or free, will”
    Example to use with spinoza:
    Consult therapist/ analyst; they pick out unconscious causes of actions which we were naturally unaware. EG: past trauma long forgotten.
  • A boy has had trouble trusting people in fear of abandonment ever since his mother left him at a young age. (people are unaware of causes but doesn’t mean the causes aren’t the reason for them acting a certain way)
17
Q

Who was Oedipus?

A
  • Prophecy was to kill his father + marry his mother.
    -Father gave him away, because of this.
  • He left his adopted family + ended up fulfilling prophecy.
    Conclusion : There is no escaping fate.
18
Q

Avoiding Scientific determinism

A

1) Scientific determinism can be avoided if the laws of nature are probabilistic. EG: Geocentric solar system believed for many years, now its heliocentric.
2) S.D can be avoided if the quantum world is undetermined. In the “Copenhagen interpretation” Bohr + Werner, governing laws of the quantum world which are undetermined + probabilistic. Eg: There is no evidence for the fundamental particle “Quark”

19
Q

Epicurus

A
  • Libertarianism
  • “epicurean philosophy”
  • 1st to come up with the inconsistent triad.
  • we feel free so are therefore free
  • everything in physical world seems determined
20
Q

Epicurus argument

A

-Evidence + science tend towards determinism; personal + moral experience tend towards free-will.

21
Q

B.f Skinner

Theory of radical/psychological behaviourism

A
  • Influenced by Freud
  • If psychology is to be a science, don’t study the mind, Study behaviour (observatory evidence)
  • Behaviour is a result of genetic + environmental conditions. (All human actions conditioned by right or wrong).
  • Determinism is “complete”, denies free will

EG; If action = good consequence, brain becomes disposed to repeat it. If bad= avoid action.

22
Q

Investigations associated with Skinner

A

Pavlovs dog
Concluded; Can introduce another stimulus, bell, (symbol, evidence of external forces) to give the same response that food gave.

“little albert experiment” (conditioning)
- Better example, as application to humans
-concluded: Phobia of a rabbit from steal rod hitting bell every time rabbit was near. Stimulus removed + fear remained.
“The instant the rat was shown, the baby began to cry” Watson + Rayner
Conclude; the way we behave os from how we are conditioned (learned behaviour)

23
Q

Positive reinforcement

A
  • hungry rat in his Skinner box
  • When rat knocked lever food would drop.
  • They learned to go straight to food

-P.R = strengthens behaviour by providing a consequence that the person finds rewarding

24
Q

Negative reinforcement

A
  • Removal of unpleasant reinforcer can strengthen behaviour
  • Eg: don’t do hw, give teacher £5, avoid paying by doing hw.

-Rats avoid electric current (introduced) by turning light on in box, before electric current came on. Pressed lever when light came on, to stop electric current.

25
Q

Punishment (weakens behaviour)

A
  • Punishment = opposite of reinforcement, weakens a response.
    1- Punished behaviour = not forgotten, it’s suppressed, returns when punishment is removed.
    2- increased aggression- way of coping
26
Q

Noam Chomsky

Theory; the innate theory

A
  • American philosopher + cognitive scientist

- Dismissed Skinner’s proposal as speculation + assumption.

27
Q

Chomsky criticism’s
Argues behaviour is innate (Born with: not influenced by environment)
Critics to Skinner

A

1) Unsound to compare animal behaviour to complexity of humans- issue of extrapolation.
2) Our behaviour thesis is merely an example of a conditional response, so why listen? This is if our behaviour is a set of conditional responses determined by genetics + environment.

-Psychological determinism collapsed in early 60’s for internal reasons (experiments)
Experiment ;
Pig- Conditioned to put a coin in a mail slot, reinforced by food. After time (instinctual drift occurred) pig began rooting. Then experiment was terminated
Conclude; animals being reinforced when they are aware of what’s happening, thus it’s just information transmission (estimation)
- If an animal acts this way than we will (humans = more complex) even animals aren’t getting conditioned response.
-We have restricted freedom as conditioning = faulty.

28
Q

Chomsky
Approach to language Aquisation
Ironically; Chomsky’s theory based on no test subject (animal or human)

A
  • Direct link to babies learning is the parents
    -Argued a child was naturally predisposed to learn a language.
    E.G;
    Feral children- Kamala + Amal’s, 2 Indiana girls raised by wolves
  • Adopted by missionaries, attempt to rehabilitate them.
    -Amal’s died shortly died after being found, Kamala vocab was 40 words
    Gesell
    Suports skinner this example: 3 year old grasped 12 words, they are usually really chatty.
29
Q

Free will; compatabilism

David Hume

A
  • View; human freedom + moral responsibility are compatible with determinism
  • We have “liberty of spontaneity” rather than “liberty of indifference”
  • “liberty of indifference” = freedom from necessity Hume saw as delusion.
  • “Liberty of spontaneity” liberty consistent with with necessity + ability to do what you desire.
  • Space for humans to act on desires, but always influences. (Paralysis of freedom)
  • Thinks determinists have been too harsh; always see events side by side.
30
Q

Compatabalism;

-A01

A
  • Hume is concerned with semantics (logic concerned with meaning)
    -Believes much confusion about issue since philosophers not defined their terms
    -Thus, he begins by giving own definition of “necessity”
    -Necessity from causal determinism = not logical necessity.
    Logical necessity kind we find in maths EG: 2+2=4 logically true. Humans = habit assuming laws of nature have this necessity, but we see nature in “constant conjunction”
    + (learn) Human nature works in the same way. We expect see same behaviour from people but isn’t logically necessary.

Ethics (11 decks)

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