Freedom

Question 1

who cannot know the difference between right and wrong

Answer 1

• those who have not learned yet
• those who cannot understand
• those who have permanently forgotten (dementia)
• those who have temporarily forgotten

Question 2

what do you need to have moral responsibility

Answer 2

moral awareness

Question 3

3 definitions of moral responsibility (Hume, social context, religion)

Answer 3

• Hume: possibly conscience, built into you
• social context: parents, law etc
• morality connected to cultural and social traditions
• morality is relative to the society you grow up in
• religious morality
• moral principles and rules given by a religion
• linked with schleiermacher’s ideas on conscience
• applicable in countries governed by religious laws

Question 4

hard determinists and moral responsibility

Answer 4

• incompatibilism, no free will
• NO MORAL RESPONSIBILITY –> moral decisions are not due to your influence
• no blame or praise can be given –> justice system is pointless
• religion: God cannot send people to heaven/hell as moral decisions are determined by Him
• people cannot be blamed for this

Question 5

6 scholars and freedom

Answer 5

• sartre
• hegel
• aquinas
• aristotle
• descartes
• Kant
• swinburne

Question 6

sartre and freedom

Answer 6

• ‘either man is wholly determined or else man is wholly free’
• this is because a determined consciousness is external and therefore not you
• so we have moral responsibility for our actions
• cannot give up responsibility, as choosing this shows you have responsibility
• libertarian view: ‘existence precedes essence’ –> have to define purpose yourself
• opposes religious ideas like Aristotles telos/religion
• this freedom can lead to feelings of abandonment from god, existential angst with despair and anguish

Question 7

hegel and freedom

Answer 7

1. oriential stage with free emperor
2. greek roman stage with everyone but slaves free with democracy
3. modern stage with all people being able to be free

• freedom is not a choice –> following impulses is being a slave to your desires
• how we structure society –> government, family laws
• free will is becoming your true self and accepting your roles and responsibilities in society

Question 8

Aquinas and freedom

Answer 8

• soft determinist
• have free will, no need for reward or punishment
• without freewill cannot give people merit, just reward or punishment
• ‘brute animals’ have neutral instincts not free will –> deer running from wolf

’ eventhough a man has a free choice, some things are not a choice for a man’

Question 9

aristotle and freedom

Answer 9

• should only praise voluntary actions
• can distinguish those that seem voluntary from those that are not
• some actions seem involuntary but have the power to be good or bad –> vice or virtue
• reform is difficult but possible

Question 10

descartes and freedom

Answer 10

• we most resemble divine infinity through free will
• choosing to do or not to do - free will
• we can be blamed or praised because of this
• ‘greatest perfection in man’
• we act as if there are external affecting forces but there arent

Question 11

kant and freedom

Answer 11

• soft determinist
• everything that happens is due to a rule governed process
• freedom: acting independently of external causes and laws
• people are rationally obligated to think they are free
• freedom: power to initiate action from oneself and exercise this power through the moral law

Question 12

swinburne and freedom

Answer 12

• even if freedom results in suffering, he would rather be free
• this is because God gave us a choice, and we would rather have freedom
  ‘ I am too in this respect fortunate’