This document summarizes research on perspectives regarding free will and determinism. It discusses philosophical debates on whether free will is compatible with determinism. While some argue free will does not exist based on a deterministic view, others propose compatibilist stances where free will can coexist with determinism. The study then reviews literature on exploring common conceptions of free will, finding most college students believe in some degree of choice not fully constrained by genetic/environmental factors. It discusses implications of how beliefs in free will and determinism may relate to views on moral responsibility and tolerance.
Participants were randomly assigned to minimal groups based on t-shirt color and listened to stories about in-group and out-group members. Their memory and attitudes were assessed immediately after and one week later. Results showed no significant in-group preferences in memory or attitudes, despite previous research finding biases based on minimal groups. The study provided insight into how arbitrary group assignments may not reliably influence eyewitness testimony or social perceptions over time as hypothesized.
This study investigated the relationship between multiple identities, cultural background, and decision-making. Previous research has shown that cognitive dissonance, or the desire to justify one's decisions, varies across cultures. Some key findings:
- Eastern cultures tend to justify choices more when social influence is present, while Western cultures justify choices regardless of social influence.
- Those with highly integrated multiple identities perceive their identities as compatible, while those with less integrated identities view their identities as conflicting. Less integrated individuals tend to be more indecisive in decision-making.
- This study examined whether attitude change after a decision varies by decision difficulty or identity integration. However, results did not support hypotheses, possibly due to limitations in
This document discusses people's folk psychology of souls and belief in an afterlife. It presents three key points:
1. Young children seem to naturally view the mind as continuing after death, even if they understand the body stops functioning. This default view decreases with age and exposure to cultural beliefs, suggesting it is not solely learned.
2. People have difficulty imagining a complete lack of consciousness and may attribute mental states like emotions and knowledge to the dead due to constraints in simulating what non-existence is like.
3. An organized cognitive system may have evolved to form illusory representations of psychological immortality, the intelligent design of the self, and meaning of life events, in response to social pressures in
It is possible for prejudice to be expressed or felt since it entails particular cognitive beliefs and critical social attitudes, adverse expression effect or the display of discriminative behavior directed to followers of a group on account of them being members of that group.
1) The document discusses David DeGrazia's views on self-creation and the ability of individuals to consciously shape their own characteristics and life direction.
2) DeGrazia considers the objection of causal determinism, which argues that free will and self-creation are impossible if all events are determined by prior causes and natural laws. However, DeGrazia argues that the view of "soft determinism" allows for a degree of freedom and chance.
3) Existentialist views, like those of Jean-Paul Sartre and Friedrich Nietzsche, support the idea that all individuals engage in self-creation through their responses to suffering, anxiety, and desires to change their
According to hard determinism, all human actions are entirely caused by preceding events and not by free will. This means people are not responsible for their actions. Soft determinism or compatibilism holds that determinism is compatible with freedom and responsibility, as when our actions are caused by our own choices rather than external forces we are still free. Indeterminism posits that certain decisions occur by chance without causes, opening up the possibility of real freedom and moral responsibility.
Graham -the moral stereotypes of liberals and conservativesBethany Stachenfeld
This study investigated the moral stereotypes that liberals and conservatives hold about themselves and each other. The researchers found:
1) Across the political spectrum, moral stereotypes about "typical" liberals and conservatives correctly reflected actual differences in how strongly each group endorsed different moral values, but exaggerated the magnitude of these differences.
2) Contrary to theories of stereotyping, the moral stereotypes were not just simple underestimations of the outgroup's morality - both liberals and conservatives exaggerated the ideological extremity of moral concerns for their own group as well as the outgroup.
3) Liberals were the least accurate about the moral values of both liberals and conservatives. Moderates were generally the most accurate in their
aziz alhakbani1242017professor. cuddyphilosophy 10.docxrock73
aziz alhakbani
12/4/2017
professor. cuddy
philosophy 103
belief paper #2
Free Will vs Determinism
Introduction
Free will and determinism is something that philosophers, psychologists and scientists have been struggling with for years now. This paper will be an argumentative essay on whether free will or determination which one is more prominent. This will be done through analysis of two articles. One of the articles is “Free Will Vs Free Choice” by Gerhard Adam and the second article is “Determinism, Free Will, and Moral Responsibility” by Vir Narain.
Part I
Gerhard Adam in his article “Free will vs Free choice” tries to bring a clear understanding of the concept of free will which he believes have been confused by free choice. According to him, free will is an illusion and does not exist. He argues that there are choices that always exists in each and every step and action that negates the aspect of free will. The author uses the example of computer programming to explain how free choice is what exists rather than free will. In the example, he shows how one steps provides choices for the next step that have to be selected for one to proceed to another step (Adam, 2013). This according to him brings about free choice and not free will.
Gerhard Adam believes that fee will is all about the person making the choice being given absolute freedom of choosing and not being given directions and hints of what the next step should be. He however, does not brings the concept of determinism, however, what he drives at is that determinism happens in so many ways, some of which looks like free will but in essence is some form of determinism. According to Adam, the choices acts as decision points that makes him believe that the things that human beings engage in are all but predetermined in a certain way.
Vir Narain in his article starts by giving a detailed definition of the determinism and free will and how they intertwine with moral responsibility. Narain believes that determinism provides that the universe is governed by the strictest natural laws, events arise naturally and inevitably from the causative factors that follow these laws (Narain, 2009). According to him, the determinist position has been challenged by the discovery of the indeterminacy at the level of subatomic particles.
Narain is of the opinion that free will is more prominent in the world looking at the various aspects of living. Determinism according to his is crafted by people who feel their freedom to chose has been curtailed. However, for larger majority, free will is what have been existing and mostly seen in how people arrive at choices. He uses the example of the various freedoms and rights that people have been given to prove how free will is the order of the day. Determinism according to him is a concept that works perfect in places where there is superiority in terms of leadership, where people have to obey orders such as in military scenarios.
Part II
From ...
Participants were randomly assigned to minimal groups based on t-shirt color and listened to stories about in-group and out-group members. Their memory and attitudes were assessed immediately after and one week later. Results showed no significant in-group preferences in memory or attitudes, despite previous research finding biases based on minimal groups. The study provided insight into how arbitrary group assignments may not reliably influence eyewitness testimony or social perceptions over time as hypothesized.
This study investigated the relationship between multiple identities, cultural background, and decision-making. Previous research has shown that cognitive dissonance, or the desire to justify one's decisions, varies across cultures. Some key findings:
- Eastern cultures tend to justify choices more when social influence is present, while Western cultures justify choices regardless of social influence.
- Those with highly integrated multiple identities perceive their identities as compatible, while those with less integrated identities view their identities as conflicting. Less integrated individuals tend to be more indecisive in decision-making.
- This study examined whether attitude change after a decision varies by decision difficulty or identity integration. However, results did not support hypotheses, possibly due to limitations in
This document discusses people's folk psychology of souls and belief in an afterlife. It presents three key points:
1. Young children seem to naturally view the mind as continuing after death, even if they understand the body stops functioning. This default view decreases with age and exposure to cultural beliefs, suggesting it is not solely learned.
2. People have difficulty imagining a complete lack of consciousness and may attribute mental states like emotions and knowledge to the dead due to constraints in simulating what non-existence is like.
3. An organized cognitive system may have evolved to form illusory representations of psychological immortality, the intelligent design of the self, and meaning of life events, in response to social pressures in
It is possible for prejudice to be expressed or felt since it entails particular cognitive beliefs and critical social attitudes, adverse expression effect or the display of discriminative behavior directed to followers of a group on account of them being members of that group.
1) The document discusses David DeGrazia's views on self-creation and the ability of individuals to consciously shape their own characteristics and life direction.
2) DeGrazia considers the objection of causal determinism, which argues that free will and self-creation are impossible if all events are determined by prior causes and natural laws. However, DeGrazia argues that the view of "soft determinism" allows for a degree of freedom and chance.
3) Existentialist views, like those of Jean-Paul Sartre and Friedrich Nietzsche, support the idea that all individuals engage in self-creation through their responses to suffering, anxiety, and desires to change their
According to hard determinism, all human actions are entirely caused by preceding events and not by free will. This means people are not responsible for their actions. Soft determinism or compatibilism holds that determinism is compatible with freedom and responsibility, as when our actions are caused by our own choices rather than external forces we are still free. Indeterminism posits that certain decisions occur by chance without causes, opening up the possibility of real freedom and moral responsibility.
Graham -the moral stereotypes of liberals and conservativesBethany Stachenfeld
This study investigated the moral stereotypes that liberals and conservatives hold about themselves and each other. The researchers found:
1) Across the political spectrum, moral stereotypes about "typical" liberals and conservatives correctly reflected actual differences in how strongly each group endorsed different moral values, but exaggerated the magnitude of these differences.
2) Contrary to theories of stereotyping, the moral stereotypes were not just simple underestimations of the outgroup's morality - both liberals and conservatives exaggerated the ideological extremity of moral concerns for their own group as well as the outgroup.
3) Liberals were the least accurate about the moral values of both liberals and conservatives. Moderates were generally the most accurate in their
aziz alhakbani1242017professor. cuddyphilosophy 10.docxrock73
aziz alhakbani
12/4/2017
professor. cuddy
philosophy 103
belief paper #2
Free Will vs Determinism
Introduction
Free will and determinism is something that philosophers, psychologists and scientists have been struggling with for years now. This paper will be an argumentative essay on whether free will or determination which one is more prominent. This will be done through analysis of two articles. One of the articles is “Free Will Vs Free Choice” by Gerhard Adam and the second article is “Determinism, Free Will, and Moral Responsibility” by Vir Narain.
Part I
Gerhard Adam in his article “Free will vs Free choice” tries to bring a clear understanding of the concept of free will which he believes have been confused by free choice. According to him, free will is an illusion and does not exist. He argues that there are choices that always exists in each and every step and action that negates the aspect of free will. The author uses the example of computer programming to explain how free choice is what exists rather than free will. In the example, he shows how one steps provides choices for the next step that have to be selected for one to proceed to another step (Adam, 2013). This according to him brings about free choice and not free will.
Gerhard Adam believes that fee will is all about the person making the choice being given absolute freedom of choosing and not being given directions and hints of what the next step should be. He however, does not brings the concept of determinism, however, what he drives at is that determinism happens in so many ways, some of which looks like free will but in essence is some form of determinism. According to Adam, the choices acts as decision points that makes him believe that the things that human beings engage in are all but predetermined in a certain way.
Vir Narain in his article starts by giving a detailed definition of the determinism and free will and how they intertwine with moral responsibility. Narain believes that determinism provides that the universe is governed by the strictest natural laws, events arise naturally and inevitably from the causative factors that follow these laws (Narain, 2009). According to him, the determinist position has been challenged by the discovery of the indeterminacy at the level of subatomic particles.
Narain is of the opinion that free will is more prominent in the world looking at the various aspects of living. Determinism according to his is crafted by people who feel their freedom to chose has been curtailed. However, for larger majority, free will is what have been existing and mostly seen in how people arrive at choices. He uses the example of the various freedoms and rights that people have been given to prove how free will is the order of the day. Determinism according to him is a concept that works perfect in places where there is superiority in terms of leadership, where people have to obey orders such as in military scenarios.
Part II
From ...
This lecture - given at the Colombo Institute of Research and Psychology - covers the philosophical underpinnings of key debates in psychology, including nature versus nurture, nomothetic versus idiography, free will versus determinism and reductionism versus holism.
Freedom comes with responsibilities that are often misunderstood. While people associate freedom with doing whatever they want, it also requires understanding the consequences of one's actions. Aristotle distinguished between voluntary actions that come from will and reason versus involuntary actions done through force, coercion, or ignorance. Similarly, human freedom is linked to moral obligation as individuals have a rational capacity to discern right from wrong.
This document discusses key topics related to developing primary skills in learners. It covers doing philosophy from partial vs holistic perspectives, methods of philosophizing from opinion vs truth, the human person as an embodied spirit regarding limitations vs possibilities for transcendence, and the human person in their environment regarding disorder vs order. It also discusses freedom of the human person in terms of choices and consequences, intersubjectivity in terms of authentic dialogue and accepting differences, and the human person in society regarding the dialect of individual and society. Finally, it discusses human persons as oriented towards their impending death in terms of death and the meaning of life.
This study examined how conformity affects morally ambiguous decision-making. Participants were presented with a scenario where they had to decide whether to kill a hostage to save others. Some participants were shown weak or strong normative statistics suggesting others' decisions. Those exposed to strong statistics conformed more by deciding to kill more. Highly religious participants conformed less. Morality and social desirability did not predict decisions. The study found people are influenced by perceptions of others' behaviors in morally complex situations.
PHI Module 8 OverviewFree Will, Freedom, Moral Responsibility, a.docxrandymartin91030
PHI Module 8 Overview
Free Will, Freedom, Moral Responsibility, and Ethics
Welcome to Module Eight. The question of free will is much harder than it initially would seem. Most of us take it for granted that we have free will. But what do we mean by free will or moral responsibility? Did you ever wonder why God put the apple on the tree in Eden, or why Adam and Eve ate the apple at all? Why were they guilty? It is because there was a rule, and they had a choice whether or not to break it. This module examines links between free will, moral responsibility, and ethics.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this module, you should be able to:
4B
discuss the compatibility between determinism and free will.
4C
evaluate the types of moral responsibilities from the perspective of ethics.
6J
describe determinism and fatalism.
6K
discuss libertarian free will.
Module 8 Reading Assignment
Waller, B. N. (2011). Consider ethics: Theory, readings, and contemporary issues (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson. Chapters 13 and 14.
Course Login Instructions
If you are a first time user:
Please register your Pearson Online
Solution
s Student Access Code. You can find your Student Access Code in the AAU Course Registration e-mail that came with your text.
If you are a returning user:
Please visit the Access Code Registration page to log in. You must log in every time you access this course. If you are not logged in, you will not be able to access the premium resources.
NOTE: Bookmarking pages in this site, especially the resources you access with the link above, is not recommended.
Please view Part 1 of the Online Presentation for Module 8.
Please view Part 2 of the Online Presentation for Module 8.
Free Will, Freedom, Moral Responsibility, and Ethics
Chapter 13 Lecture Notes: Free Will
Determinism
Determinism is the view that everything that happens is the inevitable result of past events. Determinism gains its support from two main sources. First, religious belief in an omnipotent and omniscient God seems to imply that since God already knows everything you will do long before you are born, your acts are completely determined; and since God is all-powerful, all genuine choices and power must be in God and not in human choices independent of God. Second, Newtonian physics, with its fixed and precise laws of motion, suggests that everything in the universe follows a path determined by such causal laws and ultimately everything is as predictable as the path of Halley’s Comet. David Hume embraces this determinist view, arguing that it is a matter of common sense and that all of us actually believe in determinism.
The reaction to determinism runs the gamut from promise to hopelessness or helplessness. In the case of the former, many see determinism as a doctrine of promise: everything that happens has a cause, and thus it is always worthwhile to examine why events occur. On the other hand, other view determinism as a doctrine of hopel.
This document discusses the philosophical problem of free will. It presents different positions on whether free will is compatible with determinism. Compatibilists believe free will can exist even if determinism is true, while incompatibilists think they are incompatible. Hard determinists believe determinism is true and free will an illusion. Libertarians believe free will exists and determinism is false. The document outlines arguments for and against these positions, such as debates around causal determinism, alternative possibilities, compatibilist responses, and problems with indeterminism for libertarian views.
This document discusses the relationship between ethics, morality, and emancipatory education. It begins by defining key ethical theories like utilitarianism, subjectivism, cultural relativism, and Kantian duty-based theory. It then examines the characteristics of the oppressed and oppressors. The foundations and theorists of emancipatory education are presented, with a focus on Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy theory. Key readings on emancipatory education and pedagogy are listed.
- Hard determinism holds that all human actions are fully determined by prior causes and events, based on the natural laws of a deterministic universe. This means that free will is an illusion and humans cannot be held morally responsible for their actions.
- Proponents of hard determinism such as Honderich and D'Holbach argue that if all human behavior and choices are physically determined by factors outside our control, then concepts of moral responsibility, blame, and punishment have no meaning.
- Critics of hard determinism maintain that it is possible for human actions to be both causally determined while still allowing for free will and moral responsibility, a view known as soft or compatibilist determinism.
Comparing And Contrasting Qualitative And Quantitative...Ashley Fisher
This document discusses the history and evolution of social research on natural disasters. It began during the Cold War when governments wanted to understand how citizens would react during crises like a nuclear attack. Researchers studied natural disasters to learn about social behavior under extreme conditions. The Disaster Research Center was founded to conduct qualitative studies through interviews and observations after disasters. While foundational, the document argues this research is now at a threshold where it needs to evolve to address modern challenges.
The document discusses the philosophical problem of free will and determinism. It presents the key positions in the debate: compatibilism, which holds that free will is compatible with determinism; hard determinism, which argues that if determinism is true then free will cannot exist; and libertarianism, which believes free will exists and determinism is false. The document also examines arguments for and criticisms of each view, such as the consequence argument for hard determinism and the intelligibility question for libertarianism.
Dustin McCutchen
DSSA 200
Professor Riedel
14 October, 2014
Free Will vs. Determinism Speaking Outline
1. Free will vs. Determinism is a largely argued topic among the beliefs about the true “Social Self.” Along with those two terms is one more called term; “soft determinism.” Soft determinism is basically a neutral zone or the belief that both “free will,” and “Determinism” hold true values. I personally believe that soft determinism is the best word to describe the true social self. I think both free will and determinism are right and wrong in their own ways.
2. Determinism
a. “The determinist approach proposes that all behavior is caused by preceding factors and is thus predictable. The causal laws of determinism form the basis of science” (McLeod, sentence 1).
b. Does play a roll but does not determine “ALL” behavior
c. Does not make ALL behavior predictable
i. Ex. 1 = Political views and picking a president to vote for can be deterministic because most 18 year olds don’t watch the news everyday and form their own political opinions and know what president to vote for and why. They don’t need to. So they just vote for whom their parents tell them to
ii. Ex. 2 = children see their parents committing crimes like lying, cheating, or abusing their kids, that does not mean in any way that the children will imitate that behavior as a parent. Maybe the children hate what their parents do so much that it makes the child want to be nothing like his/her mom or dad.
d. Pinpointing an exact prediction of a persons behavior is next to impossible.
i. To many variables.
3. Free Will
a. “For humanistic psychologists such as Maslow and Rogers freedom is not only possible but also necessary if we are to become fully functional human beings. Both see self-actualization as a unique human need and form of motivation setting us apart from all other species” (McLeod, “Free Will,” 2).
b. Hard to argue solid points for because you can come up with an argument against almost every example of free will.
c. Ex. Dirt-poor kid growing up in New York City. Doesn’t even have enough food day to day to survive; your instincts say steal. Now the kid has the option or the “free will” to either be a good kid and starve, or go steal something to eat from a vendor on the sidewalk or the corner market store.
i. People that believe in free will would say that, “the kid has the option to pick whichever one he wants.”
ii. But a determinist would argue that, that situation was determined because if it wasn’t for his parents being poor and him being born into a poor home, then he wouldn’t have to think about stealing at all.
4. Soft Determinism
a. “The belief that free will and determinism are compatible ideas, and that it is possible to believe both without being logically inconsistent. Compatibilists believe freedom can be present or absent in situations for reasons that have nothing to do with metaphysics.”
b. In the society we live in today I think both sides hold truth and val ...
This document discusses different varieties of determinism, including soft determinism and hard determinism. Soft determinism is the view that human behavior is determined by causal factors like heredity and environment, but that free will exists as the ability to act according to one's nature. Hard determinism is the view that all events, including mental events, are determined by their causes and can be described by scientific laws, leaving no room for free will, miracles, or chance. The document also discusses kinds of probabilities like general probabilities, essay philosophy, fatalism, predeterminism, and predestination. It examines the question of free will versus determinism and references Hume's Fork, which presents a dilemma about whether actions are determined
Meyer from personalized med to personalized research-april 2013Michelle N. Meyer
This document discusses the heterogeneity problem in research, where individuals vary in their risks and expected benefits from participating in research. It makes the case that current approaches to research ethics and regulation do not adequately account for these individual differences.
It argues that just as personalized medicine aims to tailor medical interventions to individuals, research should move towards a more personalized approach. Current risk-benefit analyses conducted by Institutional Review Boards assess risks and benefits for average or typical participants, but this may not accurately reflect risks and benefits for individual outliers. The document considers two options to better account for individual heterogeneity: 1) bringing more individualized information to IRBs and regulators, and 2) experimenting with allowing individuals to autonomously decide if risks
In this presentation, academic scholar, John Slifko includes key research findings in cognitive science from Mark Johnson's book, "Moral Imagination: Implications of Cognitive Science for Ethics" to reveal how imagination has an essential role in ethical deliberation. By a ‘Moral Law theory’ Johnson shows how every aspect of morality is imaginative— our fundamental moral concepts, our understanding of situations, and our reasoning about those situations are all imaginatively structured and based on metaphor.
The document provides an overview of rational choice theory (RCT), including its key assumptions of individualism, optimality, self-interest, and rationality. It discusses the growth of RCT in political science since the 1950s and its application areas like gaming, party politics, and legislation. While RCT is praised for its generality and predictive power, criticisms note issues with aggregating individual actions, the influence of norms and habits, and the theory's potential over-expansion of what is considered rational.
The Enchantment and Shadows_ Unveiling the Mysteries of Magic and Black Magic...Phoenix O
This manual will guide you through basic skills and tasks to help you get started with various aspects of Magic. Each section is designed to be easy to follow, with step-by-step instructions.
A Free eBook ~ Valuable LIFE Lessons to Learn ( 5 Sets of Presentations)...OH TEIK BIN
A free eBook comprising 5 sets of PowerPoint presentations of meaningful stories /Inspirational pieces that teach important Dhamma/Life lessons. For reflection and practice to develop the mind to grow in love, compassion and wisdom. The texts are in English and Chinese.
My other free eBooks can be obtained from the following Links:
https://www.slideshare.net/ohteikbin/presentations
https://www.slideshare.net/ohteikbin/documents
The Hope of Salvation - Jude 1:24-25 - MessageCole Hartman
Jude gives us hope at the end of a dark letter. In a dark world like today, we need the light of Christ to shine brighter and brighter. Jude shows us where to fix our focus so we can be filled with God's goodness and glory. Join us to explore this incredible passage.
This lecture - given at the Colombo Institute of Research and Psychology - covers the philosophical underpinnings of key debates in psychology, including nature versus nurture, nomothetic versus idiography, free will versus determinism and reductionism versus holism.
Freedom comes with responsibilities that are often misunderstood. While people associate freedom with doing whatever they want, it also requires understanding the consequences of one's actions. Aristotle distinguished between voluntary actions that come from will and reason versus involuntary actions done through force, coercion, or ignorance. Similarly, human freedom is linked to moral obligation as individuals have a rational capacity to discern right from wrong.
This document discusses key topics related to developing primary skills in learners. It covers doing philosophy from partial vs holistic perspectives, methods of philosophizing from opinion vs truth, the human person as an embodied spirit regarding limitations vs possibilities for transcendence, and the human person in their environment regarding disorder vs order. It also discusses freedom of the human person in terms of choices and consequences, intersubjectivity in terms of authentic dialogue and accepting differences, and the human person in society regarding the dialect of individual and society. Finally, it discusses human persons as oriented towards their impending death in terms of death and the meaning of life.
This study examined how conformity affects morally ambiguous decision-making. Participants were presented with a scenario where they had to decide whether to kill a hostage to save others. Some participants were shown weak or strong normative statistics suggesting others' decisions. Those exposed to strong statistics conformed more by deciding to kill more. Highly religious participants conformed less. Morality and social desirability did not predict decisions. The study found people are influenced by perceptions of others' behaviors in morally complex situations.
PHI Module 8 OverviewFree Will, Freedom, Moral Responsibility, a.docxrandymartin91030
PHI Module 8 Overview
Free Will, Freedom, Moral Responsibility, and Ethics
Welcome to Module Eight. The question of free will is much harder than it initially would seem. Most of us take it for granted that we have free will. But what do we mean by free will or moral responsibility? Did you ever wonder why God put the apple on the tree in Eden, or why Adam and Eve ate the apple at all? Why were they guilty? It is because there was a rule, and they had a choice whether or not to break it. This module examines links between free will, moral responsibility, and ethics.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this module, you should be able to:
4B
discuss the compatibility between determinism and free will.
4C
evaluate the types of moral responsibilities from the perspective of ethics.
6J
describe determinism and fatalism.
6K
discuss libertarian free will.
Module 8 Reading Assignment
Waller, B. N. (2011). Consider ethics: Theory, readings, and contemporary issues (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson. Chapters 13 and 14.
Course Login Instructions
If you are a first time user:
Please register your Pearson Online
Solution
s Student Access Code. You can find your Student Access Code in the AAU Course Registration e-mail that came with your text.
If you are a returning user:
Please visit the Access Code Registration page to log in. You must log in every time you access this course. If you are not logged in, you will not be able to access the premium resources.
NOTE: Bookmarking pages in this site, especially the resources you access with the link above, is not recommended.
Please view Part 1 of the Online Presentation for Module 8.
Please view Part 2 of the Online Presentation for Module 8.
Free Will, Freedom, Moral Responsibility, and Ethics
Chapter 13 Lecture Notes: Free Will
Determinism
Determinism is the view that everything that happens is the inevitable result of past events. Determinism gains its support from two main sources. First, religious belief in an omnipotent and omniscient God seems to imply that since God already knows everything you will do long before you are born, your acts are completely determined; and since God is all-powerful, all genuine choices and power must be in God and not in human choices independent of God. Second, Newtonian physics, with its fixed and precise laws of motion, suggests that everything in the universe follows a path determined by such causal laws and ultimately everything is as predictable as the path of Halley’s Comet. David Hume embraces this determinist view, arguing that it is a matter of common sense and that all of us actually believe in determinism.
The reaction to determinism runs the gamut from promise to hopelessness or helplessness. In the case of the former, many see determinism as a doctrine of promise: everything that happens has a cause, and thus it is always worthwhile to examine why events occur. On the other hand, other view determinism as a doctrine of hopel.
This document discusses the philosophical problem of free will. It presents different positions on whether free will is compatible with determinism. Compatibilists believe free will can exist even if determinism is true, while incompatibilists think they are incompatible. Hard determinists believe determinism is true and free will an illusion. Libertarians believe free will exists and determinism is false. The document outlines arguments for and against these positions, such as debates around causal determinism, alternative possibilities, compatibilist responses, and problems with indeterminism for libertarian views.
This document discusses the relationship between ethics, morality, and emancipatory education. It begins by defining key ethical theories like utilitarianism, subjectivism, cultural relativism, and Kantian duty-based theory. It then examines the characteristics of the oppressed and oppressors. The foundations and theorists of emancipatory education are presented, with a focus on Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy theory. Key readings on emancipatory education and pedagogy are listed.
- Hard determinism holds that all human actions are fully determined by prior causes and events, based on the natural laws of a deterministic universe. This means that free will is an illusion and humans cannot be held morally responsible for their actions.
- Proponents of hard determinism such as Honderich and D'Holbach argue that if all human behavior and choices are physically determined by factors outside our control, then concepts of moral responsibility, blame, and punishment have no meaning.
- Critics of hard determinism maintain that it is possible for human actions to be both causally determined while still allowing for free will and moral responsibility, a view known as soft or compatibilist determinism.
Comparing And Contrasting Qualitative And Quantitative...Ashley Fisher
This document discusses the history and evolution of social research on natural disasters. It began during the Cold War when governments wanted to understand how citizens would react during crises like a nuclear attack. Researchers studied natural disasters to learn about social behavior under extreme conditions. The Disaster Research Center was founded to conduct qualitative studies through interviews and observations after disasters. While foundational, the document argues this research is now at a threshold where it needs to evolve to address modern challenges.
The document discusses the philosophical problem of free will and determinism. It presents the key positions in the debate: compatibilism, which holds that free will is compatible with determinism; hard determinism, which argues that if determinism is true then free will cannot exist; and libertarianism, which believes free will exists and determinism is false. The document also examines arguments for and criticisms of each view, such as the consequence argument for hard determinism and the intelligibility question for libertarianism.
Dustin McCutchen
DSSA 200
Professor Riedel
14 October, 2014
Free Will vs. Determinism Speaking Outline
1. Free will vs. Determinism is a largely argued topic among the beliefs about the true “Social Self.” Along with those two terms is one more called term; “soft determinism.” Soft determinism is basically a neutral zone or the belief that both “free will,” and “Determinism” hold true values. I personally believe that soft determinism is the best word to describe the true social self. I think both free will and determinism are right and wrong in their own ways.
2. Determinism
a. “The determinist approach proposes that all behavior is caused by preceding factors and is thus predictable. The causal laws of determinism form the basis of science” (McLeod, sentence 1).
b. Does play a roll but does not determine “ALL” behavior
c. Does not make ALL behavior predictable
i. Ex. 1 = Political views and picking a president to vote for can be deterministic because most 18 year olds don’t watch the news everyday and form their own political opinions and know what president to vote for and why. They don’t need to. So they just vote for whom their parents tell them to
ii. Ex. 2 = children see their parents committing crimes like lying, cheating, or abusing their kids, that does not mean in any way that the children will imitate that behavior as a parent. Maybe the children hate what their parents do so much that it makes the child want to be nothing like his/her mom or dad.
d. Pinpointing an exact prediction of a persons behavior is next to impossible.
i. To many variables.
3. Free Will
a. “For humanistic psychologists such as Maslow and Rogers freedom is not only possible but also necessary if we are to become fully functional human beings. Both see self-actualization as a unique human need and form of motivation setting us apart from all other species” (McLeod, “Free Will,” 2).
b. Hard to argue solid points for because you can come up with an argument against almost every example of free will.
c. Ex. Dirt-poor kid growing up in New York City. Doesn’t even have enough food day to day to survive; your instincts say steal. Now the kid has the option or the “free will” to either be a good kid and starve, or go steal something to eat from a vendor on the sidewalk or the corner market store.
i. People that believe in free will would say that, “the kid has the option to pick whichever one he wants.”
ii. But a determinist would argue that, that situation was determined because if it wasn’t for his parents being poor and him being born into a poor home, then he wouldn’t have to think about stealing at all.
4. Soft Determinism
a. “The belief that free will and determinism are compatible ideas, and that it is possible to believe both without being logically inconsistent. Compatibilists believe freedom can be present or absent in situations for reasons that have nothing to do with metaphysics.”
b. In the society we live in today I think both sides hold truth and val ...
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The Book of Ruth is included in the third division, or the Writings, of the Hebrew Bible. In most Christian canons it is treated as one of the historical books and placed between Judges and 1 Samuel.
2. OGLETREE & OBERLE
determined). Free will is thus an illusion reflecting a kind of ignorance of the
controlling variables of our choices. In one form of this view, Stace (1952)
described a soft determinism perspective such that if no coercive external agents
were present, the person could have been said to have freely chosen a particular
action. Although Stace indicated that he believed psychological feelings,
motivations, and intentions were also ultimately caused, his usage of “free will”
referred specifically to instances of choice without external coercion. According to
this soft determinism perspective, a person’s behavior may be caused by internal
psychological states that, in turn, have causes, but if no immediately pressing
external agent affects the behavior, the person is said to have free will.
On the other hand, Hodgson (2005) describes free will as contrary to a
deterministic philosophy, even a soft determinism. Hodgson presents nine
propositions in defense of and explicating this perspective. As a necessity for free
will, the first of these propositions describes a world in which a minimum of “two
post-choice states” (p. 4) are possible, given the laws of nature. Hodgson further
argues that the two alternatives and corresponding decision must be non-random.
Yet another perspective, phenomenological free will, regards choice and
natural determinism as skew planes or nonintersecting dimensions. From the
phenomenological perspective, the individual’s experience of “will” and
“intention” is more important than whether or not there are or are not deterministic
antecedents to these experiences. In other words, the person’s own perception of
intentionally choosing, rather than whether or not that choice is “free” or
“determined,” is what is crucial. Donagan (1987) describes “will” as our capacity
to make, evaluate, and change our intentions and decisions, distinguishing our
intentions from both our desires and our beliefs. Our choices are, in a sense,
precursors to action as we think of ourselves and others as intelligent agents.
Freedom of choice, according to Donagan, is presupposed “in reporting what we
experience” (p. 181).
MacIntyre (1999) indicates the importance of not just being an agent, but
viewing ourselves as an agent. According to him, we cannot fully be moral agents
unless we regard ourselves as such in our everyday lives. Nagel (1986) describes
the subjective perspective used for viewing the self (which can be disturbed by an
external, more objective view of ourselves as part of the world), allowing us to
experience phenomenologically our reasons and the deliberative process of
choosing.
A hallmark of free will to some philosophers has been this active deliberative
process of choosing (Bernstein, 2005; Coffman & Warfield, 2005; Frankfurt, 1971;
Kane, 2002; Watson, 1987). However, Libet (2002) described an experiment in
which participants were asked to flick their wrists whenever they chose and to
report “a clock-time” for their first awareness of their action urge. The readiness
potential, signaling neuronal precursors to movement, occurred prior to the
participants’ report of awareness of action. According to Libet, this did not
preclude deliberative free will, because individuals still had “veto” power to
prevent the actual action through cognitive deliberation.
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3. COMMON USAGE AND IMPLICATIONS OF FREE WILL
Velmans (2003), though, suggests that free will may be more at a
“preconscious” level:
Like conscious wishes and decisions, feelings of having a thought to express,
verbal expressions, and consequent feelings of ‘good fit’ represent the global
state of our current cognitive processing and for everyday purposes we can treat
these as if they constitute our mental processing (in first person accounts of what
is going on). But like wishes, decisions, and experience at the focus of attention,
they are the result of preconscious processing in the mind/brain. (p. 57)
In a similar vein, based on a skills-model approach to ethical actions, Dreyfus
and Dreyfus (1991) argue that at the highest level of ethical expertise one responds
intuitively rather than deliberatively. Just as the expert chess player may respond
more intuitively than deliberatively, intuitive ethical decisions based on
experience, caring involvement, and the unique situation reflect the “highest level
of ethical comportment” (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1991, p. 247). From this perspective,
our most mature ethical choices reflect intuition rather than deliberation.
While our view comes closest to the “hard determinism” position, we believe
that many people do not accept this perspective. We wanted to explore what people
(i.e., a fair sample of college students) typically mean when they use terms such as
“free will” and “freedom of choice.”
Common Usage and Beliefs in Free Will vs. Determinism
Review of Common Usage
What is meant by free will and determinism by the average person? Writing in
1952, Stace was concerned with common usage of the term “free will.” Giving
examples of the use of the term in possible conversations, Stace argued that the
average person in common usage means that an action is freely chosen if there are
no immediate causes that are external to the person, such as a gun to the head.
However, Hodgson (2005) defends the “plain person’s” sense of free will as
being in line with his own view opposing both soft and hard determinism.
Hodgson believes that “free will,” to the average person, represents some degree of
nonrandom choice that is unconstrained by genetic and environmental
determinants.
Although psychologists and philosophers have debated what free will means
to the ordinary person or the nature of its common usage, data bearing on the issue
have been collected only infrequently. Nahmias, Morris, Nadelhoffer, and Turner
(2004) argued that because philosophers, through introspection, reach different
conclusions about the phenomenology of free will, lay people need to be asked
about their experience of free will. Asking undergraduate students to consider a
recent decision they had made, Nahmias and colleagues found that more students
gave a compatibilist response (i.e., they would have needed different desires or
would have considered something different necessary before choosing differently)
99
4. OGLETREE & OBERLE
than a libertarian response (i.e., they could have chosen differently even if
everything was exactly the same).
Nichols (2004) explored children’s perceptions of agent-causation, which
assumes that the person had the option to make another choice. Even four- and
five-year-old children indicated, when presented with scenarios in two
experiments, that people, compared to objects, have alternatives to their choices or
outcomes. Nichols, in a second study (Nichols & Knobe, 2007), described
deterministic Universe A and indeterministic Universe B. In Universe A all events,
including human behavior, were caused by previous events; in Universe B,
however, most events were caused by previous events with the exception of human
behavior, which was freely chosen by the person. Across several conditions, more
than 90% of undergraduates indicated that they believed that the indeterministic
universe was most like ours. These results imply that the lay person’s beliefs are
not compatible with the determinism perspective.
To explore further how the “common” or “plain” college student may regard
free will, we sampled college students at our university. The results are described
in the next section.
College Student Usage: Two Samples
Study 1a. College students (93 men, 166 women) in a teaching theater,
sophomore-level Psychology of Human Sexuality class, completed a questionnaire
as an extra credit option that included questions assessing participants’ attitudes
toward free will and determinism. The first of these questions simply asked
participants if they believed that people have free will and asked them to indicate
their answer using a five-point scale ranging from “definitely do NOT have free
will” to “definitely HAVE free will.” The next item asked the students to select,
from four alternatives, the description that “comes the closest” to what most people
mean by free will. The four alternatives are given below:
People’s genes, their past experience, and their current circumstances have little
influence on their decisions; they freely choose among the alternatives available
to them.
People’s genes, their past experience, and their current circumstances influence
their behavior, but ultimately they freely choose among their options and
therefore have free will.
People’s genes, their past experience, and their current circumstances ultimately
determine their behavior, but people can be said to have free will if there are no
immediately pressing circumstances (such as a gun being held to someone’s
head) that strongly influence their actions.
People only feel that they have free will; ultimately all of their choices and
decisions are determined solely on the basis of their genes, past experiences, and
their current circumstances.
100
5. COMMON USAGE AND IMPLICATIONS OF FREE WILL
The first of these four choices represents “mostly free will” with little
influence attributed to determinants of behavior; the second represents “some free
will” with some deterministic influence; the third represents a “soft determinism”
stance, and the last represents a “hard determinism” perspective. The next four
items asked participants how much they personally agreed with each of the
previous statements, using a five-point continuum that ranged from “disagree
strongly” to “agree strongly.”
For the question asking whether people have free will, 51% chose “four” on
the five-point scale, corresponding to a belief that people probably have free will;
and 32% chose “five,” corresponding to a belief that people definitely have free
will. Consistent with these responses, 69% agreed (scored above neutral) with the
statement that people have some free will, and 20% agreed with the statement that
people mostly have free will (see Table 1). In addition, 42% agreed with the soft
determinism statement, although a t-test revealed that students were significantly
more likely to agree with the “some free will” statement than the “soft
determinism” choice, t (258) = 11.52, p < .001.
Table 1. Percentages for the Free Will/Determinism Choices
Item “Most People” Believea Personal Agreementb
Mostly free will 5% 20%
Some free will 62% 69%
Soft determinism 27% 42%
Hard determinism 6% 15%
a
The percentage of people who chose this answer as what most people believe by “free
will.”
b
The percentage of respondents who scored above neutral (chose a “4” or “5”) when
indicating their personal agreement/disagreement with the item.
Study 2a. Sixty-six men and 131 women in a junior-level, Lifespan
Developmental Psychology class, were given an extra credit option of completing
a questionnaire that included two items assessing general opinions regarding free
will/determinism. One of these items assessed participants’ perception of the
amount of free will that people have using a ten-point scale that ranged from
“COMPLETE free will” (1) to “NO free will” (10); the second item asked
participants to select from three choices (representing free will, soft determinism,
and hard determinism perspectives) the choice that came closest to reflecting their
own point of view. The descriptions for soft and hard determinism were identical
to those used in Study 1a; the free will choice was almost identical to the “mostly
free will” used in Study 1a, changed only by the insertion of “relatively.” That
choice was worded as follows: “People’s genes, their past experiences, and their
current circumstances have relatively little influence on their decisions; they freely
choose among the alternatives available to them.”
On the 10-point assessment of free will, the majority of participants (64%)
chose a number less than 5, which was labeled “SOME free will,” indicating that
most participants gave a strong role to free will, consistent with the findings from
101
6. OGLETREE & OBERLE
Study 1a. However, when participants were forced to choose among the three
determinism/free will options, the clear majority (74%) of participants agreed with
the soft determinism perspective. Only 13% and 14% agreed with the free will and
hard determinism choices, respectively.
Our data support Hodgson’s (2005) “plain person’s” description of free will
more than Stace’s (1952) common usage description. In Study 1a 62% of
participants chose the “some free will” answer for what they think others believe
and were personally more likely to agree with the “some free will” than the “soft
determinism” answer. Only in Study 2a, when participants were forced to choose
among three alternatives (a hard determinism choice, a soft determinism choice,
and a choice giving little role to genetic/environmental determinants), did a
majority of participants choose a soft determinism perspective as reflecting their
own views. Also, on the one (COMPLETE free will) to ten (NO free will) scale in
the second study, more than 60% of participants selected, regarding the amount of
free will individuals have, a number less than 5 (SOME free will), another
indicator of a strong role for free will.
Implications: Free Will vs. Determinism,
Moral Responsibility, and Tolerance
Does it make a difference what attitudes people have regarding free will and
determinism? Is it possible that these attitudes could affect other beliefs and
attitudes that individuals hold? Some philosophers have argued that it does, that
beliefs regarding free will are related to attitudes regarding blame, punishment, and
moral responsibility (Double, 2004; Mitchell, 2005; Smilansky, 2005). According
to Smart (1970, p. 212), for ordinary people “the appropriateness of praise and
blame” is closely tied to their ideas regarding free will.
In other words, how can we hold individuals responsible, blame them, and
punish them for their actions if they could not do other than what they did do? In a
research study examining people’s thoughts on moral responsibility in a
deterministic world, participants were asked to imagine a deterministic universe in
the next century with a supercomputer that could predict all aspects of the future,
including human behavior, based on naturalistic laws and the current environment
(Nahmias, Morris, Nadelhoffer, & Turner, 2005). Even in such a world 83% of
participants indicated that a bank robber is still morally blameworthy. In other
words, these participants assumed moral responsibility even in a deterministic
world. However, this finding should be interpreted with caution as the majority
(76%) of the participants indicated that they believed the person still robbed the
bank of his own free will, confirming their reluctance to accept a deterministic
world view. Similar results were found when the scenario was changed to that of a
person saving a child (88% indicating praiseworthy; 68% indicating a free will
action) or going jogging (79% indicating a free will action) rather than robbing a
bank. When asked if the individual could have chosen otherwise, 67% indicated
that the robber could have chosen differently, not to rob the bank, but 62%
answered that the individual could not have chosen differently when saving the
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7. COMMON USAGE AND IMPLICATIONS OF FREE WILL
child. The implication from these preliminary data is that, especially in “people
behaving badly” scenarios, people are perceived as agents choosing their
alternatives, even in a world described as deterministic.
Nahmias and colleagues (Nahmias, Morris, Nadelhoffer, & Turner, 2006) also
used several other scenarios. In one, the universe is re-created many times, always
with the same natural laws and the same beginning conditions; participants are told
that everything happens exactly the same in all re-creations of the universe. Jill, a
person in this universe, is portrayed as stealing a necklace at the same time in
every re-creation of the universe. Of the participants in the study, 77% thought Jill
was morally responsible, and 66% still thought she had free will. Comparable
results were found for identical twins Fred and Barney, who were either reared by
a selfish (Fred) or kindly (Barney) family who, upon finding a wallet with $1,000
in it, chose either to keep or return the wallet.
Based on their data, Nahmias and colleagues (Nahmias et. al., 2006) argue
that believing actions are determined does not reduce moral responsibility.
However, the majority of participants in their study indicated that they still
believed that the actors had free will. College students in our studies also seemed
reluctant to understand or accept a deterministic world and its implications.
According to B. F. Skinner (1972), the reason for our arranging consequences
for behavior lies not in any justified retributive function but in changing people’s
behavior and society for the better. As opposed to some inherent qualities of a
person, moral as well as other responsibilities are assigned by various segments of
society from parents to parliaments with the function of providing effective
consequences that benefit the individual and ultimately the society through
promoting its survival. Similarly, Clark (2003, 2005) and Stace (1952) believe that
behavioral consequences should not be justified by what is fair or deserved but by
what is best for people and society as a whole. These views on the effectiveness of
consequences in changing behavior are obviously based on a scientific
determinism wherein “responsibility” and “determinism” are necessarily
compatible.
In another vein, Smilansky (2005) calls determinism “the great eraser” (p.
259) because this perspective should reduce people’s tendency toward judging
others as well as their own personal guilt. Thus, a deterministic philosophy may
promote empathy toward those who are punished. For example, a determinist’s
thinking regarding a woman who abuses her children might be as follows: “If I had
her genes, including any genetic tendencies towards impulsiveness and aggression,
if I had her environmental history, including the past abuse she has suffered, and if
I were in her current situation, I also would be abusing my children.” Determinists,
then, might be expected to be more accepting and tolerant of others because they
literally believe that, if they were in that person’s shoes, they would do the same
thing.
Although Haynes, Rojas, and Viney (2003) found that determinists were
indeed less punitive than libertarians, other studies have found either no
relationship or the opposite finding (Viney, Parker-Martin, & Dotten, 1987; Viney,
Waldman, & Barchilon, 1982, respectively). Further research is needed to assess
103
8. OGLETREE & OBERLE
these contradictory findings and to explore the relations among people’s beliefs in
free will, determinism, moral responsibility, and tolerance. The following two
studies attempted to address some of these relations.
Data Relating Free Will/Determinism, Moral Responsibility, and Tolerance
Study 1b. The questionnaire previously mentioned (Study 1a) included a
question assessing participants’ religiosity, seven questions assessing moral
responsibility and tolerance, the 22 items from the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory
(ASI; Glick & Fiske, 2001), and the four items from the Attitude Towards Gay
Men Scale (ATG; Herek & Capitanio, 1999). Moral responsibility was assessed by
participants rating the following item on a five-point agree–disagree scale: “People
who commit crimes or hurt someone are morally responsible for their behavior and
should expect to receive appropriate consequences for their actions.” In addition,
the following related statements were included: “The world is just and fair; in other
words a person generally gets what they deserve,” “People who commit crimes
should not be able to plead ‘insanity’ for those crimes,” and “Preventing bad
and/or criminal behavior is a better way to approach societal problems than
punishing people after they commit a crime.”
A tolerant versus judgmental attitude toward others was assessed with the
following items: “People who are addicted to drugs deserve to get AIDS from
sharing dirty needles,” “People who are obese could eat less if they truly wished to
lose weight,” and “People who are homeless could find work and afford housing if
they truly wished to support themselves.” The ASI items and the ATG items, also
used as an indicator of tolerance, then followed these items. The ASI yields two
sub-scores, a hostile sexism (ASI-H) score and a benevolent sexism (ASI-B) score.
Hostile sexism includes items such as “Most women interpret innocent remarks or
acts as being sexist” whereas benevolent sexism includes items like “In a disaster,
women ought to be rescued before men.” The four items on the ATG include two
positively worded items (e.g., “Male homosexuality is a natural expression of
sexuality in men”) and two negatively worded items (e.g., “Sex between two men
is just plain wrong”).
Pearson correlations were determined to examine the relations among the free
will/determinism items and items assessing moral responsibility and tolerance (see
Table 2). Agreement with the “mostly free will” and “some free will” perspective
was positively (though weakly) correlated to the moral responsibility item. Rather
than the predicted greater tolerance associated with determinism, agreement with
soft and hard determinism was positively (though weakly) related to hostile and
benevolent sexism.
104
9. COMMON USAGE AND IMPLICATIONS OF FREE WILL
Table 2. Correlations among Free Will/Determinism Choices, Moral
Responsibility, Fairness, and Tolerance Items/Scales
Mostly Some Soft Hard
Item/Scale Free Will Free Will Determinism Determinism
How religious −.08 .09 −.07 −.05
Believe in “free will” .03 .39** .12 −.28**
World is fair .03 .00 .18** .01
Prevention better than
punishment −.06 .00 −.03 −.13
Moral responsibility .17** .25** .05 −.13
No “insanity” plea .20** .01 .03 .10
Addicts deserve AIDS −.04 −.20** .00 .10
Obese could eat less .00 .00 .13 .13
Homeless people could
work if they wanted .10 −.01 .14* .12
Benevolent sexism .07 −.15* .23** .19**
Hostile sexism .13 −.04 .15* .16*
Gay men attitudes .03 −.05 .10 .01
Note: Positive correlations indicate agreement with each item/scale for those scoring more
agreeing with each free will/determinism choice. Significance levels have been corrected,
using the Benjamini Hochberg (Benjamini & Hochberg, 1995) correction, for alpha
inflation.
*p < .05 **p < .01
Assuming that the starred correlations shown in Table 2 are meaningful, what
explanations might be offered for these unexpected results? Perhaps our measures
of soft and hard determinism masked individual support for different kinds of
determinism. Some people who consider themselves determinists may be
responding from a religious “predestination” stance, that God has knowledge of the
outcome of everyone’s life, rather than a naturalistic determinism. Also, a belief in
determinism could be consistent with those who believe that male/female
differences are genetically based, thus explaining the correlations with sexism.
Genetic or religious determinism could be expected to be related to less tolerance
rather than more tolerance.
Study 2b explored the possibility that different forms of determinism could be
related to tolerance in different ways. Although religious and/or genetic
determinism might be related to more judgmental attitudes towards others,
determinism based on the influence of environmental factors may be related to
more tolerant, less judgmental attitudes. The relations among different forms of
determinism, a measure of tolerance, and attitudes toward homelessness were
considered in Study 2b.
Study 2b. The questionnaire used in Study 2a contained an item asking
participants to indicate how religious they were, the 18-item Belief in Genetic
105
10. OGLETREE & OBERLE
Determinism Scale (BGD; Keller, 2005), the 17-item Free Will–Determinism
Scale (Stroessner & Green, 1990), the 8-item Intolerance subscale of the Form E
Dogmatism Scale (Rokeach, 1960), and the 11-item Attitudes toward
Homelessness Inventory (ATHI; Kingree & Daves, 1997).
The BGD Scale asks participants to use a 7-point scale that ranges from “not
at all true” to “completely true” and includes items such as “The fate of each
person lies in his or her genes.” Items on the Free Will–Determinism Scale are
assessed using a 9-point (“strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”) scale and are
designed to assess “religious–philosophical determinism,” “libertarianism,” and
“psychosocial determinism.” Sample items are as follows: “My choices are
constrained by God” (religious–philosophical determinism); “I have free will in
life, regardless of group expectations or pressures” (libertarian); and “My present
behavior is totally a result of my childhood experiences” (psychosocial
determinism).
Intolerance items from the Dogmatism Scale were rated using the standard
“agree a little” to “agree very much” (+1 to +3) and “disagree a little” to “disagree
very much” (−1 to −3) scale. A sample item is “I sometimes have a tendency to be
critical of the ideas of others.”
The ATHI has a four-factor structure that assesses “personal causation,”
“societal causation,” “affiliation,” and “solutions” related to homelessness; items
are scored using a 6-point response format ranging from “strongly agree” to
“strongly disagree.” Sample items are as follows: “Homeless people had parents
who took little interest in them as children” (personal causation); “The low
minimum wage in this country virtually guarantees a large homeless population”
(social causation); “I would feel comfortable eating a meal with a homeless
person” (affiliation); and “There is little that can be done for people in homeless
shelters except to see that they are comfortable and well fed” (solutions). Items,
with one exception because it was worded in the reverse direction, were recoded so
that stronger agreement was indicated with a higher number as in the other scales.
One-way ANOVAs were used to compare the three groups from the forced
choice free will/determinism item on the four ATHI and dogmatism subscales. The
means of the three groups were significantly different on the social causes
subscale, F (2, 188) = 3.32, p < .05; and on the affiliation subscale, F (2, 189) =
3.43, p < .05. Based on Bonferroni’s post-hoc comparisons, soft determinists
scored significantly higher than hard determinists on the social causes subscale and
significantly lower than those choosing the free will alternative on the affiliation
subscale. Because of the items’ wording, the latter finding indicates that those
choosing free will were more likely than those choosing soft determinism to want
to affiliate with homeless people.
Pearson correlations were computed to examine correlations among the
determinism/free will measures, the intolerance subscale, and the homelessness
subscales (see Table 3).
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11. COMMON USAGE AND IMPLICATIONS OF FREE WILL
Table 3. Correlations among Determinism, Intolerance, and
Attitudes toward Homelessness Measures
ATHI– ATHI– ATHI– ATHI–
Item/Scale Intolerance PC SC AFF SOL
How religious .17* −.04 −.09 .09 .12
Degree of free will .05 −.02 .06 −.04 −.04
Genetic determinism .21** .17* −.05 −.14 .22**
Libertarianism .09 .08 −.14 .21** .01
Rel–phil determinism .29*** .04 −.08 −.13 .19**
Psychosocial determinism .12 .29*** −.01 −16* .16*
Note: ATHI–PC, ATHI–SC, ATHI–AFF, ATHI–SOL refer to the Personal Causes,
Societal Causes, Affiliation, and Solutions subscales of the Attitudes toward Homelessness
Inventory. Homelessness items, except for one affiliation item which was worded in the
reverse direction, were recoded to indicate agreement with the item. Significance levels
have been corrected, using the Benjamini Hochberg (Benjamini & Hochberg, 1995)
correction, for alpha inflation.
*p < .05 **p < .01 ***p < .001
Intolerance was positively, but weakly, correlated with genetic determinism,
religiosity, and religious–philosophical determinism, perhaps indicating that some
forms of determinism are related to intolerance. Psychosocial determinism was
neither correlated with Rokeach’s (1960) intolerance subscale nor with the social
causes of homelessness subscale. Individuals who agreed with a psychosocial
deterministic perspective, like those agreeing with genetic determinism, were more
likely to agree that homelessness is related to childhood experiences and substance
abuse (personal causes subscale items).
In addition, correlations among the forms of determinism lend support for the
interpretation that determinism is multifaceted. Biological determinism was
positively correlated to religious–philosophical determinism, r (197) = .21, p < .01,
but not to psychosocial determinism. Libertarianism was negatively related to
psychosocial determinism, r (197) = −.17, p < .05, and to the single item assessing
amount of free will (10 = no free will), r (197) = −.50, p < .001. In addition to the
negative correlation with libertarianism, psychosocial determinism was positively
related to religious–philosophical determinism, r (197) = .17, p < .05. At least in
these college students, the relation among these concepts does not appear to be
straightforward.
Conclusions
Are attitudes toward free will and moral responsibility, and judgments of
blameworthiness or praiseworthiness, linked in people’s opinions? In our studies
all correlations between free will/determinism measures and moral
responsibility/judgmental attitudes were small, accounting for less than 9% of the
variance among respondents in all instances. Some correlations, though, such as
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12. OGLETREE & OBERLE
those between Rokeach’s (1960) intolerance subscale and measures of genetic and
religious–philosophical determinism (Study 2b) may, in fact, be indicative of
intolerance associated with at least some forms of determinism. But what
conditions might have contributed to the generally small correlations obtained?
First, few (if any) students in this sample (and probably in common with most
people) have ever considered in any reasoned way the issues at hand. One possible
consequence is a tendency to “compartmentalize” attitudes, for example, not
thinking about implications of deterministic attitudes for blaming/praising the
actions of others. Furthermore, while few indicated an agreement with a strong
determinist position, most of our participants gave at least some role to genetic and
environmental determinants. In Study 2a, a majority chose a soft determinism
perspective as better representing their view compared to a perspective giving little
role to these influences.
Whether or not participants give a deterministic opinion regarding human
choices can be related to the scenario confronted. Nahmias (2006) presented
college students with one of two scenarios. The first described a planet called Erta
where neuroscientists had discovered how people’s decisions were caused by
chemical reactions in the brain. The second scenario was identical except that
psychologists, rather than neuroscientists, had discovered how decisions are caused
by “thoughts, desires, and plans” (Nahmias, 2006, p. 231). Participants were more
likely to give deterministic responses to the first scenario than to the second.
According to Nahmias, reducing human decisions to chemical reactions may
seemingly eliminate the focus on the conscious process of choosing.
We also found that question wording was important. In the second study,
given a forced-choice scenario among relatively little influence for determinants,
soft determinism, and hard determinism, almost three-quarters of our participants
chose soft determinism. However, at the same time the majority of our participants
indicated that they believed in more than “SOME free will.”
In a further methodological consideration, according to Nahmias (2006), a
situation’s complexity may affect whether or not an event or behavior is perceived
as determined. When students were presented with a scenario of a universe being
re-created many times with the same natural laws and asked if everything,
including a lightning bolt striking a tree, would happen exactly the same every
time, only 42 of 99 participants said it would. Perhaps common experiences of
apparent randomness and unpredictability of events shaped some students’
assessment here (not to mention Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle!).
A very different, but related, approach to studying choice involved
participants judging computer simulations. In intriguing research, Neuringer,
Jensen, and Piff (2007) asked participants to judge how closely computer
simulations of gambling behavior matched people’s voluntary choices. Computer
simulations that were unpredictable and probabilistic (resembling the generalized
matching function that predicts people’s and animals’ choice allocations under
concurrent reinforcement contingencies) were perceived as “voluntary.” In other
words, “voluntary” is a “discriminable behavioral characteristic” (Neuringer et. al.,
2007, p. 18). Studying aspects of simulated behavior that participants perceive as
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13. COMMON USAGE AND IMPLICATIONS OF FREE WILL
being freely chosen may be another approach to understanding what the average
person means by “free will.”
The reluctance to view human behavior from a deterministic perspective may
be related to the perception that if decisions are determined we have no choice.
However, from a deterministic perspective, each choice becomes even more
important because the consequences of that choice become determinants of future
behavior. M. C. Escher’s (1981) “Drawing Hands,” a print of two hands each
drawing the other hand, becomes a metaphor for our creating ourselves with each
decision that we make. As Nelkin (2004) points out, rational deliberators view
themselves as having good reasons for making the decisions they do and as being
morally responsible for the outcome of those choices. This holds true even if their
reasons and subsequent choice are ultimately determined by the deliberators’
genes, their past experiences, their present situation, and the laws of nature. We
can still experience the “up-to-us” feeling (Kane, 2002, p. 5) associated with the
phenomenological experiencing of “free” will even if only one final choice is
possible.
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