Hard Determinism Flashcards
(6 cards)
Main belief?
All events are completely determined by prior causation.
No autonomy or freedom.
Called incompatibilism as free will and determinism cannot coexist.
Therefore we cannot be punished or held responsible.
Origins in Galileo and Newton, in understanding the laws of nature and stars.
Einstein: “we all dance to a mysterious tune.”
John Locke?
Belief that we are free is a mere illusion.
Analogy of a man who wakes up in a room locked from the outside and chooses to stay and never try the door. He may think he chose freely but he didn’t.
Spinoza?
Also that freedom is an illusion.
People are “ignorant” because we don’t understand fully how our brain processes information and prompts and urges us.
Sam Harris?
Thoughts and intentions dictate us from background causes, and can assert no control.
Free will is based on two false assumptions as us as conscious sources of our actions; and we could have behaved differently than we did in the past if we want.
Calls rapists “unlucky” and posits the impulse as irresistible. Still believes criminals must be imprisoned for safety, but not responsible.
Believes in the law of causation.
Biological and environmental factors important, nature and nurture not versus.
Sigmund Freud?
Psychological determinism with 3 instinctive forces:
The id which is an unconscious primitive and impulsive force seeking immediate pleasure.
The super ego which is a store of moral values accumulated from culture and parental expectations. Acts in a repressive fashion and gives us a sense of right and wrong.
The ego, responsible for striking a balance between the id and super ego.
We act according to our upbringing and nature.
BF Skinner?
Believed free will as a primitive superstition, and we don’t fully understand the causes of our nature.
Every human action is a result of two things: the genetic blueprint and childhood experiences.
Behaviourist: Skinner critical of Freud, rather than studying unconscious motives- a waste of time, we should study behaviour and whether it reflects prior events.
Believed in positive v negative reinforcement as the dictate of behaviour.
