Lesson 5 Flashcards
View that all events are caused by past events such that nothing other than what does occur could occur.
Determinism
Origin of Determinism
- Principle of Causality (Cause-Effect)
- Causality is the view that every event is an effect and has another event as a cause and is itself the cause of yet another effect.
- Example: The world did not came to be on its own it has to be caused by something else.
Power or capacity of humans to make decisions or perform actions independently of any prior event or state of the universe.
Free will
American Psychologist and Social
Philosopher. Known for his defense of behaviorism, a view claiming that human behavior is conditioned.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
Freedom is an illusion & behavior is a natural event (thus can be determined)
Total determinism
- Cause and Effect relation
- Environment forms human nature
- Control the environment to achieve certain result
STIMULUS-RESPONSE THEORY
- I have genetic, biological, and physical structures which influence my behavior (disabilities, inherited disabilities, being a male/female, etc)
- I have environmental structures which are part of me (early life, psychological development, culture, national and ecclesiastical frameworks)
- I am keenly aware of the external forces and demands which are placed upon me. (e.g. law and norms, immediate necessities)
Levels of Experiences (Historicity)
- Man can never be reduced to automatic reactions
- Man can always transcend
PROBLEM OF TOTAL DETERMINISM
A French Philosopher named Jean Paul Sartre who advocated for Existentialism, is one of the most notable proponents for the argument of Freedom.
Jean Paul Sartre
The capacity for self-determination.
The absence of control or restraint.
Freedom
a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.
Existentialism
The concept of absolute freedom
- Freedom is one’s very identity
- “I am my Freedom”
- Man is free and indeterminate
- Man is the structureless phenomenon of consciousness in the world
- Existence is Freedom
The ideas on freedom
- “If God did not exist, everything would be permitted.” (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
- Man is the only creator of what is good for him and his fellowmen.
- Man is a being-for-others
The ideas on freedom
- If God determines what the good should be, anyone who follows is not good. He is only good because God wills that he is good.
- Goodness does not depend on faith in God. One is good because it is a choice.
- Evil is also a choice since man is free.
- Structures and Freedom are contradictory.
- The past does not determine the person.
- The person is the future that he himself creates.
- Future is indeterminable, it’s simply a product of man’s free will.
Absolute freedom
