Sunday, February 26, 2012
Determinism and Free Will
What are the biggest problems with believing in determinism or free
will? Well, my big problem with determinism is that it does away with ethics, which I believe are absolutely essential. (If everything is determined, then no one can be held responsible for their actions and thereby punished for them. On the other hand, no one could be praised for doing the "right thing" either.) So, even if determinism turned out to be correct, I don't think we could accept it without falling into complete anarchy. My big problem with free will is that it seems obvious that certain things are determined, like the law of gravity, for example. If I drop a piece of chalk ten times, I would expect it to fall to the ground ten times. This appears to be absolutely determined and inevitable. I don't honestly believe that full determinism or full free will exist, so I'm a compatiblist. That seems to be the only rational choice to me. However, there are apparently issues with compatibilism too, especially concerning individuals and their behavior. Is there any right answer here? Probably not.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is a long post and I apologize for that. I am trying to convey an answer to the problem of responsibility; apparently do so requires a large amount of space.
ReplyDeleteHere is my response to your initial problem with responsibility.
We currently operate under the assumption that humans are the agents by which an action is made. Under this assumption, it seems right to hold people responsible for their actions, because they could have made a choice to not perform any given action. Given our current assumptions, it seems perfectly acceptable to treat people poorly after they have committed a crime; If person A kills person B, it seems right, to us, to deprive person A of comfort; thus we have punishment. Punishment, I think, is not the right approach.
Determinism has it that people cannot be held responsible for making a choice, because they are simply the agent through which, not by which, an action was made. To provide a good example of how a determinist could deal with crime, you have to invoke a lack of choice. Therefore, think of it this way:
A child is born with a severe, yet non-terminal communicable disease present from birth. Since the child had no control over this, the child cannot be held accountable for this circumstance. Most of can agree, then, that it would be wrong to lock this child in a cold, dark room which reeks of urine. Surely, however, the child must be quarantined from society. Given that the child cannot be held responsible for having a disease, we would likely treat the child as comfortably as could be allowed. Additionally, we would likely search for a cure to this disease.
This example shows that, in a deterministic universe, the punitive approach to dealing with crime would be far less fitting than a rehabilitative approach. Given that criminals are not responsible for their actions, it is wrong to punish them. It is not wrong, however, to supply them with as many comforts as can be allowed and help them to be rid of their criminal ways, that they do not act criminally again.
Similarly, since ethics still exists in a deterministic universe, it would be good to recognize, promote, and reward good actions. If a teacher dedicated years of his or her life to helping students become better people, it would be good to recognize that this is a good quality to have, and to promote the idea that people should aspire to be similarly good. Praising good qualities does not harm anybody, it only promotes it, which could one of the primary causes for someone else exhibiting similar qualities.
Here is my response to your thoughts on free will.
Everything in the universe is subject to natural laws. Gravity, light, electricity, heat, and so on, are all controlled and determined natural laws of the universe; I am sure you agree here, yes? Everything in the universe is subject to the laws of nature; your brain is composed of electric signals. Therefore the laws of nature effect your brain. Additionally, as I mentioned in class, your thought are influenced completely by the thoughts of others.
Ok, I'm on board with the whole rehabilitation vs. punishment thing. That sounds perfectly acceptable. I appreciate the time you took to write this, it was very helpful. Thank you.
Delete