Chapter 3 Free Will and Determinism

1. Chapter 3Free Will and Determinism

2. Causal Determinism • Causal determinism is the doctrine that every event has a cause that makes it happen. • But if everything, including every act, has a cause, how is it possible for persons to have free will?

3. Section 3.1The Luck of the Draw Freedom as Chance

4. Hard Determinism • Hard determinism is the doctrine that there are no free actions. • (1) Causal determinism is true.(2) If causal determinism is true, there are no free actions.(3) Therefore, there are no free actions.

5. Thought Experiment: Laplace’s Superbeing • “Given for one instant an intelligence which could comprehend all the forces by which nature is animated…the future and the past would be present to its eyes.” • If it is, in principle, possible to predict everything we will ever do, how can we have free will?

6. The Consequence Argument • (1) If causal determinism is true, then every event is the consequences of past events plus the laws of nature. • (2) We are powerless to change past events, laws of nature, or their consequences, which include our actions. • (3) If we are powerless to change our actions – if we can’t do otherwise – then we can’t act freely. • (4) Therefore, if causal determinism is true, we can’t act freely.

7. Incompatibilism • Hard determinists are incompatibilists because they believe that causal determinism is incompatible with free will. • They also believe that causal determinism is incompatible with moral responsibility.

8. Determinism and Moral Responsibility • (1) If causal determinism is true, we can’t act freely. • (2) If we can’t act freely, we can’t be held responsible for our actions. • (3) Therefore, if causal determinism is true, we can’t be held responsible for our actions.

9. Thought Probe: Freedom and Foreknowledge • Many believe that God is all-knowing, which means He knows the future. • If God knows the future, can there be free will? Why or why not?

10. Science and Determinism • Some believe that science has shown that hard determinism is true. • Psychologist B.F. Skinner, for example, claims, “Personal exemption from a complete determinism is revoked as a scientific analysis progresses.”

11. The Nature/Nurture Debate • The nature/nurture debate is about which factor has a greater effect on our behavior. • Those who favor nature claim that the primary determinant of our behavior is what’s in our genes. • Those who favor nurture claim that the primary determinant is how we’re brought up.

12. Quantum Indeterminism • Although both science and common sense are said to confirm causal determinism, neither does so. • Physics has found that some events, for example, those at the sub-atomic level, have no cause. • So the doctrine of causal determinism is false.

13. Thought Experiment: Gardner’s Random Bombardier • “Imagine a plane [carrying] a hydrogen bomb that is dropped by a mechanism triggered by the click of a Geiger counter.” • Here an event on the micro-level can have a significant effect on events at the macro-level. • So indeterminacy is not necessarily confined to the micro-level.

14. Common Sense and Causal Determinism • Some believe that we can’t understand the world unless causal determinism is true. • But quantum mechanics gives us an unprecedented understanding of the physical world and it admits the existence of uncaused events.

15. Thought Probe: Genetic Cleansing • Suppose that sociobiologists discover the genes that influence our psychology. • Suppose further that we can alter those genes through genetic engineering. • Should we use this technology? Why or why not?

16. Causal Indeterminism • The view that some events are not the consequence of past events plus the laws of nature is known as causal indeterminism. • In this view, the future is not fixed.

17. Indeterminism • Indeterminism is the doctrine that free actions are uncaused. • In this view, at any point in history, there are many possible futures.

18. Thought Experiment: Taylor’s Unpredictable Arm • Suppose that Taylor’s arm movements are undetermined or random. • If his arm hit someone, he wouldn’t be responsible for it because he didn’t cause his arm to move. • This possibility shows that uncaused actions can’t be considered free actions.

19. Causality and Action • An uncaused event can’t be a free action because where there is no intention, there is no action. • To be held responsible for an action, you must have caused it (or failed to prevent it.)