The Influence Of Chisholm's Beliefs

take, it means that the man causes action. Having the freedom of choice could not have been caused or determined by any event that was not itself within the shooter’s power either to cause or not to cause. Even if the victim (second man) caused the shooting to occur, the results will be the same. If a man caused the act and people have the right to choose, then free will does exist. Chisholm then offers another hypothetical situation: under hypnosis, a man is unable to do anything other than what it is that he did. Using the same situation, Chisholm replaces hypnosis with desires and beliefs while keeping the same result that the shooter couldn’t have done otherwise. So the question now becomes, is a man responsible for the desires and beliefs he happens to have? If a man is responsible for his desires and beliefs, then the man has the power to choose whether to acquire or not to acquire them. Assume that determinism is correct, that some other event caused the man to develop a belief. Since something other then the mans own free will caused him to formulate the belief and the man …show more content…
A stratagem used my many philosophers states; (A) He could have done otherwise, it is argued, means no more nor less than. (B) If he had chosen to do otherwise, then he would have done otherwise. According to A and B, if our shooter had chosen to do otherwise, then he would have done otherwise, yet he could not have done otherwise. Chisholm believes the problem lies in the first premise, (B) could be true while (A) is false if determinism is true. He also believes that from statement (B) we cannot make an inference to (A) unless we also assert that (C) he could have chosen to do otherwise. But if (C) is to be rejected and only (B) is justified, then the ascription of responsibility conflicts with a deterministic view of