Thinkers on determinism and free will Flashcards
John Calvin on predestination
“Eternal life is pre-ordained for some, and eternal damnation for others”. We have no free will and no responsibility.
Augustine on predestination
“The potter has authority over the clay”
Spinoza on hard determinism
“The mine is determined…by a cause…and so on to infinity”
Hospers on hard determinism
“Morality is a victim of circumstances”. Always something which compels us to act
Clarence Darrow on hard determinism
“Punishment as punishment is not admissable unless the offender has free will to select his course”
Pinker + Dawkins on hard determinism
Moral reasoning is a result of natural selection
Isaac Newton on hard determinism
Universe is governed by immutable laws of nature
John Locke on hard determinism, incl. Analogy of…
“Freedom is an illusion”. We dont understand the causes behind our actions. Analogy of a man in a locked room
Baron d’Holbach on hard determinism
“Man…is a fly who imagines he has the power to move the universe, while is himself unknowingly carried by it”
Ted Honderich on hard determinism
“All our actions are no more than effects of other equally necessitated events”. Actions are caused by unstoppable psychoneural events. No room for moral blame.
Peter van Inwagen on libertarianism
Libertarianism is like a road with many junctions, whereas hard determinism has none
Heisenberg on libertarianism
Uncertainty principle - no room for general laws and causes, as e.g. we cannot always know the location of all particles all the time
Aquinas on libertarianism
“Man chooses not of necessity but freely”
Kant on soft determinism
Determinism applies to everything that is the object of knowledge, but not the object of will.
Self-awareness forces us to believe we’re free
