Free Will FREEDOM VERSUS DETERMINISM

Are human beings free to make moral decisions and to act upon them? Are they determined by forces outside and within them? What you think are free decisions are actually not? Really a metaphysical question Important implications for responsibility in humans INTRODUCTION

Universal causation For every result, effect and event that occurs, a cause exists Would never be a debate over what human beings should do, just answers to what they will do What is the point of holding them responsible? Powerful implications DETERMINISM

Theory that God is all-powerful and all- knowing, then He must have predestined everything that occurs Problems Is there such a being? Is he all-powerful and all- knowing? Most theories of salvation are limited if humans are not free to make choices between good and evil RELIGIOUS DETERMINISM

Must accept determinism in science All about experiments, constancy, prediction of truth Led scientists to believe freedom doesn’t exist Especially applied to modern psychology Two types – physical and biological/genetic SCIENTIFIC DETERMINISM

From discoveries in physical science Newton theorized that everything in reality is basically material, or physical, in nature and is therefore completely determined by natural laws Problems Natural laws state probabilities, not certainties Modern physics has raised serious doubts about Newtonian physics PHYSICAL SCIENCE AND PHYSICAL DETERMINISM

Charles Darwin’s theory that species evolve by means of natural selection, survival of the fittest Nature determines human beings More sophisticated form of this theory states that human beings are totally determined by genetic makeup, with no control BIOLOGICAL AND GENETIC DETERMINISM

Theories of George Hagel An absolute mind is trying to realize itself in perfection and manifest itself through history of the world, and that human beings therefore are completely determined by their past and present history and cultures Problems Difficult to prove the existence of an absolute mind, one that can exist without a body Other theories of history are just as plausible HISTORICAL OR CULTURAL DETERMINISM

Karl Marx Human beings are determined by economic class struggles that inevitably will lead to a classless society Problems Based on unproved assumptions, other economic theories equally plausible Other factors other than economics also exist ECONOMIC OR SOCIAL DETERMINISM

Freud – Humans are affected by unconscious drives and their attempts to repress them Problems Too generalized Skinner – Human beings are physical beings whose development is totally determined by external stimuli provided by physical and cultural environments Problems Based on materialistic view of human beings, which does not stand up to evidence or argument Too universal Psychological Determinism – Freud and Skinner

The belief that all events are fixed and predetermined so human beings cannot alter them in any way An example you have heard? People would never worry about stop signs, never take medication Saying everything has a cause not the same as everything is out of human control FATALISM

All events are caused, then freedom is incompatible with determinism Problems Language out of context Do not account for complexity of the nature of human beings Try to reduce to simplicity Human minds are open- ended and creative, humans create their experience of the world, active seekers HARD DETERMINISM

Theory that all events are caused, but that some originate with human beings Does this even make sense? Don’t things ultimately come from outside of our control always? Does allow us to assign praise, blame, reward, punishment SOFT DETERMINISM

Certain amount of chance and freedom in the world, not everything is caused Some desires for novelty and spontaneity in the world, allowing for freedom and creativity Argument is that remorse is an indication we are free Problems Based on wishful thinking What are uncaused events? Not a guarantee of human freedom, only chance INDETERMINISM

DOES FREE WILL EXIST? A Debate.