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Welcome to A2 Philosophy and Ethics

2. What we will Study. Free Will and DeterminismMeta-EthicsConscienceVirtue EthicsEnvironmental and Business EthicsSexual Ethics. 3. Some Free Will?. How would you define

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Welcome to A2 Philosophy and Ethics

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    1. 1 Welcome to A2 Philosophy and Ethics Dr. Corrigan

    2. 2 What we will Study Free Will and Determinism Meta-Ethics Conscience Virtue Ethics Environmental and Business Ethics Sexual Ethics

    3. 3 Some Free Will? How would you define ‘free will’? Do you think that people are free to act?

    4. 4 Are We Always Free? What can stop someone from being free? Can someone be both free and constrained?

    5. 5 Task Complete Worksheet 7.1. Discuss the questions as a class.

    6. 6 Some Definitions (7.2) Free Will: The ability to make free and unhindered choices. Determinism: The idea that all of our actions are governed by laws outside of our control. Hard Determinism (Incompatibilism): Denies we have free will and claims that all actions have a prior cause. Removes responsibility for all actions. Soft Determinism (Compatibilism): Sayys we can be both determined and free, as some of our choices are free but aspects of our nature are determined.

    7. 7 Group Work Consider one of the previous definitions and give a list of its pros and cons. Then present your findings to the class.

    8. 8 Plenary Write down 5 things that you have learned from other people today.

    9. 9 Determinism

    10. 10 The Free Will Problem The Problem with Free Will is two-fold

    11. 11 Determinism This is the view that all events are completely determined by other events. The world of science is a determined world, in that events are caused by past events.

    12. 12 Science Observable events are subject to the laws of nature.

    13. 13 The Weather Forecast Mel Thompson (Teach Yourself Ethics, 20) uses the illustration of a weather forecast:

    14. 14 Analysis In this analysis there is no such thing as an accident. Any event is caused by a series of causes that coincide to create the conditions for the event to occur. Most events are brought about by a chain of previous events that contribute to the situation.

    15. 15 Accident? On 28 Feb 2001 a man drove his car off the M62 motorway near Selby. The car was hit by a train which then derailed into the path of an oncoming goods train. Ten people died.

    16. 16 Accident Gary Hart was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving – he had spent the previous night on the phone with his girlfriend and had fallen asleep at the wheel.

    17. 17 Prediction Scientific determinists see the world as a great machine, with every event predictable. Some scientists believe that if we were to know everything about the world as it currently is, we could predict what is to come.

    18. 18 Darwin and Determinism Darwin’s theory of evolution is a mechanistic process – the conditions of nature affect the development of life. Know enough about the conditions and you can predict how life will develop.

    19. 19 Psychology Psychology and Sociology also suggest a determinist world – to understand a person’s behaviour look at past events.

    20. 20 Quantum Science However, recent developments in quantum science suggests that the world is less predictable and more random.

    21. 21 Nature V Nurture Is our behaviour due to: The fact that we are just born ‘that way’? (Our genes, hereditary factors) Our upbringing? (our environment and experiences)

    22. 22 The Bell Case In 1968, Mary Bell (11) was convicted of the murder of 2 toddlers. She spent 12 years in secure units before being released at 23. She self-harmed and was often violent.

    23. 23 Hard Determinism All actions are completely determined by previous events. All actions are the result of a complex network of prior events. These include sociological, cultural, psychological and physical influences. One of these alone would not be sufficient to determine all future actions – but the sum of them is. The world is governed by strict natural laws. Therefore, a person cannot be held morally accountable for their actions.

    24. 24 Soft Determinism There is an element of determinism in human actions, but we are still morally responsible for what we do. Some of our actions are conditioned by genetics and environment. Within the complex web of causal prior events, there is still a limited amount of choice left for human beings. Needs to define what is determined and what is open to choice.

    25. 25 Some Key Terms Incompatibilist: A person who believes that determinism removes the possibility of free choice making. Hard-determinist: Someone who also believes that determinism is true. Soft-determinist/Compatibilist: Someone who believes that free will and determinism are in some way compatible.

    26. 26 Consequences of Determinism There is no moral responsibility. The perception of freedom to choose is just an illusion. No one can be guilty of the crimes that they commit or for the way that they act.

    27. 27 Necessity and Contingency A necessary statement must be true ‘All widows are women’. A contingent statement may be true or false – its truth depends on what it describes – ‘All women are widows’

    28. 28 Another Possibility Determinists treat the factors that influence a person’s behaviour as necessary truths. However, statements regarding the influence a person’s background has over their behaviour may be contingent truths.

    29. 29 Chaos Theory This theory proposes that there is apparently random behaviour within a determinism system. This is not due to a lack of laws, but to minute and unmeasurable variations in the initial conditions affecting the outcome of an event. ‘The flap of a butterfly’s wings may cause a hurricane in the opposite side of the world’.

    30. 30 Libertarianism

    31. 31 Libertarianism “By liberty, then, we can only mean a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will; that is, if we choose to remain at rest, we may; if we chose to move, we also may. David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

    32. 32 Free From Constraint Libertarians believe that we can choose to act despite past events, cultural and environmental conditioning and biological influence. People who reject the idea of determinism, because it denies the possibility of moral responsibility, believe that humans have self-determination and free will.

    33. 33 Moral Responsibility Our actions have moral significance – they are affected by our character, the values that we hold and our beliefs.

    34. 34 A Distinction Libertarianism distinguishes between types of action, and between types of cause. Humans experience freedom in ethical decision-making, even if they are physically constrained.

    35. 35 Crime? While the individual might come from a background that predisposes them to a life of crime, they still experience the freedom to choose. It may be that their conscience tells them that an action is wrong, or even that they are aware that society ‘disapproves’. They can still choose. All actions are voluntary!

    36. 36 G. E. Moore “I am free in performing an action if I could have done otherwise if I had chosen to do so.”

    37. 37 Ted Honderich Argues that the compatibilist/non-compatibilist debate is based on a failure to define the word ‘free’ properly. Determinism does not negate freedom completely – certain kinds of feelings and personal attitudes can remain. However, certain attitudes and responses based on origination (self-causation) will be impossible to maintain if determinism is true.

    38. 38 Problems with Libertarianism Libertarianism has been accused of failing to provide an adequate explanation for the actions that humans take. It argues that humans can make moral decisions that are independent of previous ‘chains of cause and effect’, yet it does not take into account the importance of precedence and past experience. Our actions must be caused by something!

    39. 39 Predestination

    40. 40 John Calvin (1509-1564) Calvin taught that God is All-Powerful (omnipotent) and All-Knowing (omniscient). A logical extension of this belief is that God already knows which humans will be welcomed into heaven, and which will go to hell.

    41. 41 Moral Choice? If it is already decided (or predestined) who will go to heaven, then humans have no moral choice. This idea is known as Predestination and is supported by several writers, including St. Paul.

    42. 42 St. Paul “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined… and those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Romans 8:28-30

    43. 43 St. Augustine (354-430) “Will any man presume to say that God did not foreknow those to whom he would grant belief?... This is the predestination of saints, namely, the foreknowledge and planning of God’s kindness, by which they are most surely delivered.” De dono perseverantiae (428), 35

    44. 44 Support for Predestination The belief has strong support from several Christian groups, and remains as one of the 39 articles of faith of the Christian Church of England.

    45. 45 Problems for Predestination Contradicts the belief that human beings can achieve salvation through their own actions (Pelagianism). Clearly conflicts with the idea of free will, and also suggests that a person need not take any responsibility for their actions. Contrary to most concepts of justice for people to be punished if they are not responsible for their actions.

    46. 46 Go to Hell? If a person is predestined to go to hell, and is not morally responsible, on what grounds are they being punished?

    47. 47 Individual Views on Free Will and Determinism

    48. 48 Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) In his Critque of Pure Reason (1781), Kant argued that there is a difference between things as we experience them, and things as they really are.

    49. 49 Things

    50. 50 Morality? If we perceive someone acting morally, we impose an order on the events that we perceive. Through this imposing of order and causality, we can explain the action in terms of conditioning. Kant believed that we are phenomenally conditioned (outside observers can see the cause of our actions) and noumenally free.

    51. 51 J. S. Mill (1806-1873) Libertarians argue that determinism must be false, because we experience freedom of choice. When we are confronted by a moral dilemma, we are aware of different alternatives as well as of past experience. Since we are aware that we can choose to act, whatever our past experiences were, determinism must be false.

    52. 52 Motives J. S. Mill argued that we only experience a memory of past events. In some of those events we chose one route, and in some we chose another. In every case, we followed our strongest motive – and we will do so in the present case.

    53. 53 Augustine of Hippo (354-430) In De Libero Arbitrio, Augustine argued that God’s foreknowledge does not deprive us of freedom. God foreknows what each human will freely choose.

    54. 54 Thinkers to research Kant J. S. Mill John Calvin G. E. Moore (St.) Augustine of Hippo Boethius Ted Honderich

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