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Class Notes - Free Will & Moral Responsibility
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Free Will andMoral
Responsibility
,Libertarianism and Hard
Determinism
Libertarian The belief that actions
1
some human are
freely
Free will ? chosen
Hard
The belief that all events are caused
by
past events such that other than
Determinism ?
what does occur could
nothing
,
occur
Principle of An action
free only if the agent the
is -
alternate person doing the thing could have done
-
possibilities ? otherwise
Event without
causation
No
physical event can occur
having
been caused
by physical
a previous event
A bat
being swung making a ball fly
↳
Example? ,
through the air
mind
Agent
An
agent being propelled by a a can
-
-
whole chain
causation
start
of causality that
a was
not caused
The person
else
by anything the bat did so because
swinging
↳
Example ?
wanted to
they
Argument
It's
difficult to
find arguments that
Libertarian will
are in
the support of free
from ↳ Libertarians that -
we shouldn't
libertarians ? discount the
argue
legitimacy of our own personal ,
subjective experiences
should consider
if feel
↳
free
'
we we
Example ? . .
so ,
the
possibility that we are
French
C. 18th French philosopher
'
Baron D Holbach ,
philosopher ?
,
said that none
of our actions are
actually
believed that that's
Believed ? free .
He
is the result of
everything
happening
unbroken right
chain
now ,
an
of events .
Humans humans and their actions
Meaning
↳ are
the
are part of ? just
it's
part of physical world ,
bound
by
physical laws .
Libertarian all actions are
Summary free
: =
,
All actions Po AP = An action is
H D= are caused ,
only
free if the person had options .
No
physical event
happen without
'
can a cause . D Holbach =
none of our
actions are
free 4 humans are bound
by the
physical world .
,Libertarianism and Hard
Determinism 2
reductionism
This view is explained often through
↳ The view that all the world and
parts of ,
of our own experience .
can be traced back -
or
Reductionism? reduced down to one
singular thing
-
↳ E. G. You see mind as
being capable of
your
decisions when
making free make
'
you
. .
.
choice it's
a
nothing like balls and bats
However ,
The
four Mental Brain
Physical
states ?
States
=
States
=
Biological =
states
States
And as the
what does it
is deterministic
world as
then there's just
physical ,
already said ,
show & how ? ,
room no
for
free will despite how we ,
strongly feel it
↳ HD's the
say difference between the
Difference causes
of human actions 4 the causes
of
between
physical events like bat
hitting ball is
-
a a
-
human and
clauses?
that our actions have all sorts
of invisible
physical causes that happen in our brains
Deliberate
human action Belief + Desire +
Temperament
what does However ,
there could be
factors ,
or
changes
B. D4T mean in one
of the B ,
D or T s that rules out other
FW ? that
for possible options .
This shows even
actions that think
we are
freely chosen ,
How do
are
actuallyin decided on these
factors ,
B. ☐ { T
or
changes these factors .
Therefore
help show meaning they're not
actually free and
derteminion ? helps
determinism
the
to prove
likely hood of
.
Summary Reductionism all parts
of the world
: =
can
be reduced to one
singular thing The 4 states ( mental .
,
brain
biological physical
,
) show the world deterministic A DHA
,
=
.
requires belief desire { temperament changes in these
, ,
calculated decisions determinism in
can cause
changes
=
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