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CHIP > Free Will, Good and Evil > Flashcards

Free Will, Good and Evil Flashcards

1
Q

why is free will important

A

concept universal to many belief systems that underpin society

criminal justice, religion

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2
Q

defining free will

A
  • intentional agency
  • open future
  • ultimate responsibility
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3
Q

intentional agency

free will def

A

a product of beliefs, desires & intentions

could have done something diff if those states differed, but also if the states were the same

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4
Q

open future

free will def

A

the past is fixed, but our choices are between many possible, available futures

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5
Q

ultimate responsibility

free will def

A

actions were not coerced by an external force, could be influenced but not determined

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6
Q

mismatch between the way we see ourselves & the world

problems with free will

A

problem arises from 3 propositions we hold which seem incompatible
1. we freely chose our own beh
2. every event has a cause
3. freedom of will & causal determinism are incompatible with eachother

freedom of will, determinism, incompatibilism

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7
Q

we dont have free will

A

hard determinism

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8
Q

no causal laws

A

libertarian free will

belief that we have ultimate free will over our thoughts, actions & beh

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9
Q

free will & determinism not mutually exclusive

A

compatibilism

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10
Q

impossibilism

A

free will cannot exist independent of the deterministic position

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11
Q

agent-causal libertarianism

A
  • agents have capacity to make decisions without causal determination
  • contra causal free will
  • not completely incompatible with determinism - we may have reasons for making a decision, but those dont determine the beh
  • conceptual links with dualism - the agent is a separate substance to events in the world
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12
Q

event causal libertarianism

A
  • actions are caused, but not causally determined, by prior events
  • indeterminism in part of the process of initiating these actions
  • allows ppl to break from the action that would have been caused by prior events

kane said that indeterminism is at the neuronal level

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13
Q

indeterminacy and free will

A
  • ev to support the idea that there might be indeterminacy that could give rise to libertarian free will
  • 1 of the principles of quantum physics: at subatomic level there is an indeterminacy (certain events are genuinely random & uncaused)
  • questions determinism
  • doesnt follow that subatomic indeterminism –> free will at the level of brain & beh
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14
Q

against libertarian free will

A
  • a lot of things impact beh
  • cannot choose early environments
  • harris - a maturing neuroscience removes the possibility of free will (eliminative materialism)
  • others - neuroscience doesnt add anything, dont tell us actions are determined but how they are
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15
Q

hard determinism

A
  • physical laws that explain causality in phyisicality (cannoy change past)
  • cannot have free will
  • might make choices but these are determined
  • form part of an interlocking causal chain that stretches back to the beginning of the universe
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16
Q

for hard determinism

A
  • laplace’s demon: represent at its extreme
  • thought experiment: imagine a demon knew position & state if motion for every atom in universe, could predict entire future of universe
  • modern version: super supercomputer
  • plenty of ev for determinism of various kinds: scientific disciplines attributing causes
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17
Q

fatalism and determinism

A
  • criticism of determinism: pointless to think about what we’ll do in future - rebuttal is fatalism
  • determinism is not incompatible with the idea that our deliberations influence our decision, but that our deliberations in turn are dermined
18
Q

chaos theory

A

certain physical systems are impossible to predict

small diffs in initial conditions can lead to massive changes in system beh - unpredictable

19
Q

chaos theory and freedom

A
  • popper (1950) - unpredictability implies indeterminism
  • principally an argument that undermines determinism, open to preserving libertarian free will
  • but chaotic systems determined - properties known when initiated
  • chaotic systems unpredictable but not underterminable

unpredictable and complex dont correspond to free

20
Q

compatibilism

A
  • soft determinism
  • free actions are done voluntarily - still caused but by internal states
  • determined actions = ones which are coerced
  • absence of coercion means we can make conscious, rational, informed decision

distinction between compatibilism & libertarian highlights diff actions we might be held responsible for

21
Q

frankfurt

compatibilism

A
  • problem is it potentially reduces free will to just act on desires & impulses, and doesn’t match our folk conception of it
  • there is a distinction between first order (impulses) and second order (meta-desires)
  • free will based on ability to act on 2nd order desires

meta-desires: desires about desires

22
Q

strawson

compatibilism

A
  • freedom and resentment
  • feelings like gratitude/resentment dont make sense
  • if ppl cannot control actions, why would we reward or hold them accountable
  • a lot of emotions are reactive: based on other ppl
  • we behave in a way that presupposes free will
23
Q

compatibilism evaluation

A
  • fundamentally changes definition of free will (it is contextual)
  • searle: rejects substance of free will but maintains verbal shell
  • but often when we apply free will in public life, it is consistent with compatibilism
  • sentencing often taken mitigating factors into consideration
  • nahmias: many ppl see free will & responsibility as compatible with determinism
24
Q

incompatibilism

van iwagen

A
  • demonstrate flaws with compatibilism
  • no one has power over facts of the past & laws of nature
  • no one has power over facts of the future
25
Q

libet

doubt on compatilist free will

A
  • measured readiness potential in supplementary motor cortex
  • 300ms gap with potential preceding decision
  • decision to act is unconscious & comes before our “decision” to do so
  • argued we don’t decide to act, but we can consciously veto our decisions at last second

nahmias argued this finding only shows something is going on before the decision is made so it doesnt verify the brain is making a decision prior to conscious decision

26
Q

gregory on free will

A

we dont have free will, but we have free won’t

27
Q

impossibilism

A
  • free will is impossible, equivalent to randomness
  • strawson: idea we have ultimate responsibility for our action is incoherent
  • 5 stage argument
28
Q

5 stage argument

impossibilism

A
  1. you do what you do in any situation because of the way you are that you are not responsible for
  2. to be truly responsible for what you do, you somehow have to change to become responsible for the way you are
  3. these efforts to change will be determined by the same factors as point 1
  4. further changes will be similarly determined by those factors too
  5. therefore, you cannot be truly morally responsible for what you do
29
Q

are humans evil

hobbes

A
  • concerned with how ppl can live together in peace without conflict
  • all human motivation is selfish & tied to survival
  • basic emotions are fear & desire for power
  • aggression is central part of human experience
  • leviathan
30
Q

the social contract

hobbes - leviathan

A
  • argued for the need for an unaccountable, all-powerful sovereign who will create the peaceful conditions to live
  • ppl left to their devices cannot do it themselves
  • alternative is universal insecurity
  • ppl make a social contract with the state - obedience for a peaceful life - social contract theory
31
Q

are humans good

rousseau

A
  • ppl are naturally peaceful & decent
  • book: the social contract
  • views are reactionary - believed that agriculture & civilization corrupted ppl & created strife
  • romanticised view of peasant life
32
Q

evaluating hobbes ev

humans evil

A
  • many moral exhortations appeal to one’s self-interest e.g. “judge not lest ye be judged”
  • self-interest in these type of quotes: future reward, good feeling
  • if we aren’t naturally selfish, why do we need moral systems to nudge us towards altruistic, good beh?
33
Q

evaluating rousseau ev

humans good

A
  • plenty of ev to suggest that a lot of beh isnt purely selfish
  • relationships with other ppl are transactional in nature: ease others suffering which is a unpleasant to us
  • around 1/3 of population perform some charitable activity in a given month
34
Q

behaviourism

good & evil

A
  • emphasis on environment
  • watson - can make anyone into anything based on environment
  • skinner - walden two - utopian novel using behaviourist principles
  • not good/bad ppl, good/bad environments
  • morality is a function of external factors
35
Q

personality

good and evil

A
  • authoritarianism - susceptible to certain actions, social dominance orientation
  • eysenck - psychoticism. linked with increased criminality
  • big 5 - low agreeableness & conscientiousness = impulsivity
  • ppl not as a whole naturally good/evil, but some more likely to be evil
36
Q

rousseau & ethology

ev against rousseau view: wilson et al.

A
  • compared 2 competing accounts of murder among chimps
  • adaptive strategy argument: increases access to resources
  • human impact account: killings are a result, similar belief to how ppl are made evil due to civilisation
37
Q

selfishness & money

dunn

A
  • having more resources (money) is only moderately correlated with happiness
  • association between spending more on other ppl, not spending on yourself
  • selfish reason to be unselfish
38
Q

hobbes & ethology

de waal

A
  • chimps spontaneously comfort each other
  • animal research has shown how animals will refrain from an action if it is paired with another animal getting hurt

other research: identified how animals react -vely to received unfairness to other animals as well

39
Q

role of situation

good vs bad

A
  • social psych - importance of situation over disposition
  • zimbardo
  • issues with experiment: worse it gets as a means of ev for making claims about beh
  • guards being young men = testosterone, impulsiveness –> aggression
40
Q

pinker

morality

A
  • violence, war and conflict falling for nearly 15 yrs
  • might be due to improvements in policing
  • but some things are not falling
  • e.g. proliferation of democracy, egalitarianism in positions of power
  • challenged view that civilisation is making us more immoral, but isnt entirely congruent with a social contract theory approach either
41
Q

fatalism

definition

A

a belief that everything is determined, and nothing we do will make a difference

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