Determinism

objection to moral responsibility, is determinism, the idea that given the initial state and laws of the universe, all future events and outcomes are completely determined. Over the course of this paper, I describe a particular theory for how moral responsibility can exist even in a deterministic universe. One prominent view in the realm of moral responsibility is the libertarian stance. Libertarians believe that moral responsibility is incompatible with determinism because they see humans as…

people can be punished or praised according to their actions. Others believe that free will does not exist. Determinist believe that each and every event or actions is predetermined ahead of time. According to metaphysical problem of free will, if determinism is true there is no…

The notion of free will is something we’re all born with, it’s not taught to us. We grow up with the idea that we are in conscious control of all our actions and thoughts. How could we not? It feels like we make all our own decisions, we chose to eat that pie, or go on that run due to eating said pie. Seeing past that veil is something that many people have done, from scientists, to philosophers, even the average citizen. Scientists have performed numerous studies, which provide pretty solid…

A determinist is an incompatible response and a determinist disagrees with belief one and holds on to belief two. Determinist believers argue that the act of being “free” is simply just a mere illusion. Determinism is a problem because it is very difficult to defend and stand by. A determinist’s argument is basically saying that we cannot hold anyone responsible for his or her actions. An example from Conee and Sider was the “punch to the face”. In this scenario…

For those of us grew up in the United States, we are brought up in a society that teaches us that we possess free will, and from that free will, we are morally responsible as individuals for our actions. However, when it comes to the topic of free will in a philosophical sense, there appears to be more than what we are taught as children. While many believe in the idea of our free will, there are others who believe that individuals are not responsible for their actions. This comes from an idea…

For many centuries, philosophers have attempted to answer an important question: do we have free will? Though the answer may seem as simple as “of course we do, I can make my own decisions independent of what you are doing.” Significant philosophers like Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, and Lock have tried to tackle the issue of free will (Ekstrom 1). Today, there are three major types of arguments for free will: the hard determinist, indeterminist, and compatibilist. Knowing the…

for our actions even though we have no control over them? It is very hard to imagine how someone could possibly be responsible for actions they had no control over but beyond that we would have to accept that moral responsibility can coexist with determinism. Personally I feel even if we lived in a determinist world we would still be morally responsible for our actions for fact that you acted and your act caused consequences.…

The short video provided in the prompt is of a man falling onto train tracks in a relatively crowded subway station as a train approaches quickly. To the surprise of many viewers, only one onlooker has the gumption to jump onto the tracks and attempt to save this man from his seemingly certain death. Luckily, the lone responder is able to pull the man off the tracks just in time to help him get out of harms way. If this bystander had not acted in the way that he did, I highly doubt we would be…

will be examining, regarding free will, praise and blame J.J.C Smart. A short history about Smart is that he is considered is that Smart is what is thought to be a “soft determinist”, which means that he believes free will and determinism are like-minded and indeed determinism is required for moral responsibility, and places his arguments to show that this is to be true. He believes that there are two main reasons as to why libertarianism is not good and that is that one it’s conflict with…

Chapter nine in Problems from Philosophy by James Rachels and Stuart Rachels titled “The Debate Over Free Will” is about the three arguments over free will. They are Determinism, Libertarianism, and Compatibilism. The Determinism argument is, as Rachels states, that our actions are manipulated by forces we cannot control. The second argument Rachels presents is Libertarianism which states that some actions we freely choose and that we are also not made to do so. The last argument is…