'It is not possible to defend
'It is not possible to defend morality in light of deterministic viewpoints.' Discuss. [45 marks]Libertarianism is the view that we do have freedom. We are autonomous beings with the ability to make free moral choices. Determinism, however, holds the view that we do not have freedom and therefore humans can only have pre-conditioned, programmed choices over which they have no control. Such a viewpoint makes the concept of morality hard to defend since determinism undermines free will.The main argument for libertarianism is that in life and through our experiences, we feel that we are free. Freedom is generally felt by most people to be a given and an innate faculty of being human. For example, we feel free to choose tea of coffee or decide which shoes we want to buy. We also feel that we are free to make moral choices. We can decide whether to lie or to steal and feel that although we may be influenced, we are not governed by any laws of nature or our personality, upbringing and experiences. These arguments are, however, not conclusive. Just because you 'feel' you are free does not necessarily mean that you actually are. Neither should freedom be presumed just in order to preserve morality. Immanuel Kant, who w
If this is so, then the future of the world is not as fixed or determinable as a hard determinist would believe and morality is still defendable. People may object to this view and argue that if their spiritual destiny is fixed, why should they work hard to be good. If we were able to work out all the previous causes and effects we would be able to predict the future. This is sometimes called soft determinism. Skinner developed this technique to operant conditioning where he used positive and negative reinforcers and punishments to modify behaviour. However, they may not be so different. For example, if God knew that you were going to commit adultery then surely you have no choice whether to do so or not. He therefore rejects determinism by arguing that you are who you are because of the choices you make and not that you make choices because of the way you are. Twins of identical genes and upbringing who have different personalities can be used to support this idea. Compatibilism is the view that freedom and determinism are actually compatible and although we are in some sense determined, we still make choices. If you belonged to the first group, you would go to Hell, regardless of what you did since your fate has already been pre-determined. If you belonged to the elect, you would go to Heaven. Although at an atomic level we are made up of atoms which are under the laws of physics, from a whole organism level it appears that we are thinking, rational beings who have freedom. This sense of moral freedom is also needed to enforce moral responsibility.
Common topics in this essay:
Isaac Newton,
Paul Sartre,
,
Immanuel Kant,
Heaven No-one,
Thomas Hobbes,
Classical Conditioning,
Skinner Freud,
John Calvin's,
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freedom determinism,
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view freedom,
governed laws nature,
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god's omniscience,
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sense determined choices,
spiritual destiny fixed,
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Acceptance Essays
