Issues and Debates: Free Will and Determinism

Question 1

what’s free will?

Answer 1

humans are self-determining and free to choose our own thoughts and actions. it believes we are able to reject the biological and environmental factors as the masters of our own destiny.

Question 2

what’s hard determinism?

Answer 2

all behaviour has a cause and it’s possible to identify and describe these causes. we assume everything we think and do is dictated by internal or external thoughts that we can’t control.

Question 3

what’s soft determinism?

Answer 3

James was the first to put forward the notion of soft determinism. while acknowledging all behaviour has a cause, it also suggests there’s room for manoeuvre as people have conscious mental control over their behaviour.

Question 4

what’s biological determinism?

Answer 4

the belief that behaviour is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal, neural) factors. behaviour like mental disorders have a genetic basis. the role of testostrone in aggressive behaviour.

Question 5

what’s environmental determinism?

Answer 5

the belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment. Skinner describes free will as an illusion and all behaviour is a result of conditioning. our behaviour is shaped by the environemental events and agents of socialisation (parents, teachers).

Question 6

what’s psychic determinism?

Answer 6

behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts we can’t control. Freud argued

Question 7

what’s scientific emphasis on casual explanation?