Compatibilism vs Hard Determinism
Liaa Ferede
University of Minnesota Rochester
Introduction
Hard determinism is the belief that “all of our actions are completely causally determined by prior events” (Mondy, Hard determinism ppt, 2017) therefore our actions are not free. For instance, the way someone grew up can affect how they view the world and how they make decisions, so their action is not free because it is affected by their past. I will be objecting to this view with the compatibilism view because even though our actions are based off our past, we still have free will depending on the circumstance. I will be describing some circumstances where we do and do not have free will.
Compatibilism View Stace (1952) argues how hard determinism …show more content…
However, when it comes to doing anything “practical, even the most trivial kind, they invariably behave as if they and others were free” (p.119). Stace gave the example about children; they will ask the child why they lied and then give them some sort of punishment for not choosing to tell the truth, this is not consistent with their belief of free will (p.120). If they were to believe in the hard determinist view, then the child should not be punished for something that was causally determined for them to do. As stated before, “free acts are all caused by desires, motives, or some sort of internal psychological state of the agent’s mind. The unfree acts, on the other hand, are all caused by physical forces or physical conditions, outside the agent” (Stace, Compatibilism, p.124). In order to distinguish between who should and should not be punished, we shouldn’t go so far back in their history to find a reason for their actions. You should just look at the current situation and see if the reason they chose what they did was because of their personal choice or if there was something forcing them to pick otherwise. Looking back to the school girl, for a teacher to determine whether she should be allowed to retake the test she missed or not is due to her reason. A teacher will not allow the girl who decided to not go to school knowing she had a test because she had the option to come in and take it; unlike if her car broke down, she had no choice but to miss it, so she should be considered to retake
Liaa Ferede
University of Minnesota Rochester
Introduction
Hard determinism is the belief that “all of our actions are completely causally determined by prior events” (Mondy, Hard determinism ppt, 2017) therefore our actions are not free. For instance, the way someone grew up can affect how they view the world and how they make decisions, so their action is not free because it is affected by their past. I will be objecting to this view with the compatibilism view because even though our actions are based off our past, we still have free will depending on the circumstance. I will be describing some circumstances where we do and do not have free will.
Compatibilism View Stace (1952) argues how hard determinism …show more content…
However, when it comes to doing anything “practical, even the most trivial kind, they invariably behave as if they and others were free” (p.119). Stace gave the example about children; they will ask the child why they lied and then give them some sort of punishment for not choosing to tell the truth, this is not consistent with their belief of free will (p.120). If they were to believe in the hard determinist view, then the child should not be punished for something that was causally determined for them to do. As stated before, “free acts are all caused by desires, motives, or some sort of internal psychological state of the agent’s mind. The unfree acts, on the other hand, are all caused by physical forces or physical conditions, outside the agent” (Stace, Compatibilism, p.124). In order to distinguish between who should and should not be punished, we shouldn’t go so far back in their history to find a reason for their actions. You should just look at the current situation and see if the reason they chose what they did was because of their personal choice or if there was something forcing them to pick otherwise. Looking back to the school girl, for a teacher to determine whether she should be allowed to retake the test she missed or not is due to her reason. A teacher will not allow the girl who decided to not go to school knowing she had a test because she had the option to come in and take it; unlike if her car broke down, she had no choice but to miss it, so she should be considered to retake