Free will definitions Flashcards
Determinism
All events are determined by prior causes.
Science and determinism
To take human actions as different to any other event goes against science and cause and effect. We are simply evolved creatures on the same continuum with the rest of life. Subject to the laws of physics like everything else.
Free will as cultural
Only exists in some cultures. Christianity emphasises the importance, but many others do not.
Holbach’s argument
Every action has a cause which determines it, this cause can be traced back to an earlier cause, eventually there is a cause that is out of our control.
Hard determinism
All humans are determined by causes. No free will
Soft determinism / compatibilism
All human actions are determined by prior causes, but there can still be free will.
Classical free will theory
Human actions are not determined by causes. There is free will.
Hume’s view
We cannot be subject to moral judgement if our actions are determined, problematic for law and order.
Addiction argument for free will
No free will suggests there would be no difference between actions under genuine compulsion (severe addiction) and ones that are not.
But we know there is a difference
Mind-body problem
Can there be 2 different materials, mental and physical? A soul? Properties we don’t understand that explains why the mind is different.
Randomness plus reason
Kane suggests in a situation with reasons for and against an action, the decision is random. Buridan’s donkey. Randomness is none determinisitic.
Agent causation
An agent causing an event can be argued as different to an event causing it. In snooker, the ball moves because it’s hit by other balls, the cue moves because the hand moves, the hand moves because the agent moves it. You don’t ‘move’ your brain.
Uniformity of nature
Darwin argued against special creation. Organisms aren’t made of a special substance.
Libet’s experiment
Electrical activity of decision making begins 300ms before conscious awareness begins.
Free ‘won’t’
Conscious veto, enough time in the 200ms to cancel an action.
Criticisms of Libet’s experiment
Decision in question was purely arbitrary, is this really reflective of meaningful deliberate decision making, like donating to a charity, or proposing to a partner.
Shaffer, et al experiment
Tasked to catch a model helicopter. People described many varieties of strategies, but all of them kept the helicopter in a vertical line in the center of their FOV. Incorrect description of an uncionscious action.
