Limits of enlightenment rationality in the face of cultura.docx

Limits of enlightenment rationality in the face of cultural
relativism
Biological universals, symbolic particulars and political
discourse
This talk will explore the conceptual underpinnings of cultural
relativism and universalism. It will present examples of
common issues raised in debates on cultural differences and
outline a possible direction in which an analyst of universalist
and relativist discourse might proceed.
OutlineOrigins and nature of cultural relativismParadoxes of
cultural relativismChallenges to cultural relativism:
conservative, liberal, rationalistic/scientificCultural relativism
as a cultural patternEnlightment, romaticism, secular humanism
and limits of cultural relativism as a political view
Qualifications:
- background in cognitive and text linguistics currently doing
PhD research on metaphors in educational discourse at EDU
- cross-cultural trainer for the Peace Corps (visited and worked
in over 20 countries)
- run a website on Czech culture (http://www.czechupdate.com)
and language (http://www.bohemica.com), translate and teach
languages for a living

- taught a course on Czech national identity at universities in
Prague and Glasgow
Defining cultural relativism
(the Google way)the ability to view the beliefs and customs of
other peoples within the context of their culture rather than
one's own.
www.china.org.cn/english/features/Archaeology/98851.htmunde
rstanding the ways of other cultures and not judging these
practices according to one's own cultural ways.
oregonstate.edu/instruct/anth370/gloss.htmlCultural values are
arbitrary, and therefore the values of one culture should not be
used as standards to evaluate the behavior or persons from
outside that culture.
www.killgrove.org/ANT220/cultanthdef.htmlthe position that
the values, beliefs and customs of cultures differ and deserve
recognition.
www.anthro.wayne.edu/ant2100/GlossaryCultAnt.htmCultural
relativism is the principle that an individual human's beliefs and
activities make sense in terms of his or her own culture. This
principle was established as axiomatic in anthropological
research in by Franz Boas in the first few decades of the 20th
century, and then popularized in the 1940s by Boas's students.
...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_relativism
Defining cultural relativismThe degree to which an individual
or a society is willing to suspend the universality of values and
value-based actions (particularly those acquired by primary
socialization) in the face of conflicting values held and acted
upon by individuals or groups recognized as belonging to

another in-group defined social unit.
Origins and nature of relativismNatural relativism (Bible,
Jesuits, missionaries, ‘different folks different strokes’/‘when in
Rome’ [387 A.D.])Enlightenment (pursuit of
happiness)Romanticism (noble savage)Anthropology (Boas,
Lévy-Strauss)Linguistics (Whorf-Sapir, Lakoff)Philosophy
(pragmatism)
Paradoxes of cultural relativismCultural relativism vs.
universals (anthropological, linguistics, biological)
[theoretical - the easy one] - deep down we’re all the same
(Fukuyama); we’re all irrevocably different
(Huntington)Cultural relativism vs. ethnocentrism [practical -
the tough one]
- it appears to be a natural state of all societies to be
ethnocentric
Conservative challenges to relativism
Cultural relativism = moral relativism“Relativism has become a
kind of virus, attacking the immune systems of institutional
legitimacy and public decency.” Dinesh D’Souza, 1995“I hate
relativism. I hate relativism more than I hate anything else,
excepting, maybe, fiberglass powerboats. More to the point, I
think that relativism is very probably false.” Jerry Fodor, 1985

Liberal challenges to relativism
Cultural relativism ≠ moral relativism
(unless an individual’s human rights are
threatened)Feminism (genital mutilation, rape, veil)Secular
humanism (individual potential)
Conservative challenge parodied
"A spectre haunts human thought: relativism. If truth has many
faces, the not one of them deserves trust or respect. Happily,
there is a remedy: human universals. They are the holy water
with which the spectre can be exorcised. But, of course, before
we can use human universals to dispel the threat of cognitive
anarchy, which would otherwise engulf us, we must first find
them. And so, the new hunt for the Holy Grail is on." (Ernest
Gellner, 1981)
Scientific/rationalistic challengesPsychologypsychoanalysis
(Samoa adolescence; Bereavement & maternal instincts; cf.
Tsunami counseling – universal nature of psychological
trauma)Cognitive psychology (color research, Hopi
time)ScienceEthology (Konrad Lorenz on Evil)Genetics -
Evolutionary Psychology
Relativism and universals
(one paradox explained)Biological: Smile, Incest,
LoveAnthropological: Power, Gender roles, Marriage ("having a
publicly recognized right of sexual access to a woman deemed
eligible for childbearing" Universal People, Brown,
1991)Linguistic: Time/tense/aspect/modality, Categorization,

Iconicity
Symbolic patterns vs. biology
Brown on the UP: “When they smile while greeting persons it
signifies friendly intentions.” (p. 134)
Marriage universally institutionalized in the sense of "having a
publicly recognized right of sexual access to a woman deemed
eligible for childbearing" (p. 136)
Relativism and ethnocentrism as a political stance [the real
problem]Immigrants bring economic benefits (and diversity, see
below)
vs.
Immigrants bring incoherent culture (relativize values)
the Indian Labour voter /Black Democrat paradox
Problems with rationalist conceptualizations of diversity and
homogeneityConceptual frames [patterns of expectation] of
diversity and homogeneity (Parmenides vs.
Heracleitos)Scenarios of diversity: Evolutionary of diversity
paradox (Jared Diamond, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, (‘world
would be boring, if everyone was the same’ )Scenarios of
homogeneity (being “deep down…”, “find someone with like
interests”, “he’s being very American” – how many people are
like that? - Asymmetric perception)

Relativism and conceptual analysisThe theoryDiscourse on
relativism revolves around conceptual patterns of expectation
(frames) built on images, scenarios, folk theories, salient
examples, decision making algorithms and negotiation [not
memes]These frames categorize the world in complex ways as
described by the prototype theory of categorization (the ‘law of
excluded middle’ is only one of the frame building folk
theories)Social science doesn’t have a good way of dealing with
phenomena across levels of magnification (similarly to
sciences) [e.g. Diamond on Rwanda
genocide]ConclusionEnlightenment rationality built around
classical logic and the premise of individual human rights
[pursuit of happiness] cannot be a good descriptive framework
(partly because it breaks down with paradoxes)An adequate
descriptive/explanatory framework cannot be the political
solution because it has to be relativistic to the point of action
paralysis [e.g. Pedophilia in Hair, the musical]
The examples
Jarred Diamond – Rwanda genocide
Climbie (African children abductions)
Sodomy
Fellatio
Cunnilingus
Pederasty
Father, why do these words sound so nasty?

Mortality and Immortality
How do humans explore our mortality through art and
architecture?
From ancient times to the present, the living make both tombs
and commemorative art to serve various purposes:
to express the cultures’ ideas and values about death and the
afterlife
to closely tie religion to ritual burials
to promote political and social intentions
to visually establish power
to guarantee honor, fame and/or glory.
9.4 Great Pyramids, Gizeh, Egypt. From left, Menkaure, c.
2525–2475 BCE; Khafre, c. 2575–2525 BCE; Khufu, c. 2600–
2550 BCE.
9.7 Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahri, Egypt, c.
490–1460 BCE.
This funerary temple was a monument to the greatness of
Egypt’s woman pharaoh.
When high-ranking Egyptians began to hide tombs in hillsides,
the funerary temples were enlarged and emphasized.
The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut shows this development.

The temple housed 200 statues of her, painted reliefs showing
her divine birth, coronation, military victories, and other
exploits.
After death, Hatshepsut’s portraits were defaced, records of her
rule obscured.
They were rediscovered in the 19th C.
Dias de Los Muertos
Days of the Dead
A social tradition, is the Day of the Dead, celebrated in Mexico
and parts of the United States.
Evidence indicates that pre-Columbian people participated in
festivals dedicated to the dead many centuries ago.
In Mexico, a synthesis of pre-Columbian beliefs and European
ideas occurred with the coming of the Spanish.
Ancient Goddess of the Dead: Mictlantecuhtl
*

In private homes, altars honor the deceased, with incense,
pictures of the dead and their favorite foods.
Families may spend the night at the graveyard, decorating the
gravesites, burning many candles.
Many crafts are created during this holiday, including
food.Such as this traditional sugar skull decorated with icing
with a place to put your name.
In public, marketplaces are sites for parades and celebrations.
José Guadalupe Posada
[Mexican Engraver, 1852-1913]

Political Printmaking
This artist used the skeletal figure with political satire to make
commentary on the divide of social and economic classes.
Gran fandango y francachela de todas las calaveras
(Happy dance and wild party of all the skeletons)
Broadside
Type metal engraving
Calaveras performing the rituals and pleasures of everyday,
mocking the pretensions and vanity of life.
Funeral Complex of Shi Huangdi one of the most extensive
tombs ever constructed.
In 1974, peasants digging a well uncovered a buried army of
6,000 life-size clay soldiers guarding the afterlife palace
complex.
The torsos are hollow, the legs are solid.
The bodies are standardized: frontal
stiff
anatomically simplifiedBut each distinctly different

Funeral Complex of Shi Huangdi
MEMORIALSWhat is a memorial? What is it expected to
represent about memory, death, loss and time? Is it a lesson
from the past, or a warning in the present?
Contemplate examples of both public and personal memorials
you have seen or heard about in terms of their designs and
intentions:
whether they are meant to be permanent or temporary
whether they are created by professional architects or designers
or the product of non-professional individuals or groups
whether they evoke ideas of grief, celebration or community.
WASHINGTON, DC Korean War Memorial
Korean War Memorial
WASHINGTON, DC Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Designed by artist Maya Lin
Jan Scruggs, Founder and President, Vietnam Memorial Fund
Dedicated on November 13, 1982, The Vietnam Veterans
Memorial stands in the Constitution Gardens at the National
Mall in Washington D.C. Two long black polished granite walls
are inscribed with the names of the 58,000+ killed during the

war. The memorial was conceived by its designer, Maya Lin, as
a place of healing and contemplation.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund decided to have only art
professionals on the selection jury.
These are the entry panels, simple pastel drawings by Maya Lin
who was an architectural student at the time.
Her simple yet meaningful design won the votes of the selection
jury.
The mission statement drafted by the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial Fund consisted of 4 simple points:Design must
include all 57,000+ names of soldiers missing or killed
Design must be apolitical
Design must be harmonious with site
Design must facilitate a healing process
I chose black granite in order to make the surface reflective and
peaceful. I never looked at the memorial as a wall, an object,
but as an edge to the earth, an opened side. The mirrored effect
would double the size of the park, creating two worlds, one we

are a part of and one we cannot enter. The two walls were
positioned so that one pointed to the Lincoln Memorial and the
other pointed to the Washington Monument. By linking these
two strong symbols for the country, I wanted to create a unity
between the nation’s past and present.
Maya Lin,
Designer of Memorial
911 Memorial
The 9/11 Memorial was dedicated on September 11, 2011 the
10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in a ceremony for victims’
families.
*
SHANKSVILLE, PA Temporary Memorial
In the weeks and months following the crash of Flight 93 in a
field near Shanksville, PA, a variety of personal, spontaneous
remembrances were left near the crash site. This temporary
memorial site has served as a gathering place for families and
others seeking to mourn and remember those lost.
911 Memorial Renderings
The 9/11 Memorial is located at the site of the former World

Trade Center complex, and occupies approximately half of the
16-acre site. The 9/11 Memorial features two enormous
waterfalls and reflecting pools, each about an acre in size, set
within the footprints of the twin towers.
Pentagon Memorial
The Pentagon Memorial is designed so and individuals are
welcome in the Memorial each day but guided tours are not
offered; the Memorial is meant to be experienced on a more
personal level. that the nation may remember and reflect on the
events that occurred on September 11, 2001.
911 Museum
The National September 11 Memorial Museum serves as the
country's principal institution concerned with exploring the
implications of the events of 9/11, documenting the impact of
those events and exploring 9/11's continuing significance.
The Museum displays artifacts associated with the events of
9/11, while presenting stories of loss and recovery.
The Pedagogy of the Oppressed
1
Meet Freire
biography of Paulo Freire

2
Pedagogy of the Oppressed: The Nature of the Oppressed and
Oppressor
Freire describes the relationship that exists between the
oppressor and the oppressed and the systems that are inherently
perpetuated by the nature of these relationships. Freire argues
that the oppressed can only become free when they recognize
their oppressed state and let go of the fear of being truly free.
This struggle to become free takes place through a deep and
intrinsically motivated desire to be human.
“This struggle [to be human] is possible only because
dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a
given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders
violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the
oppressed.” (Freire, p. 26)
Freire argues that the oppressed and the oppressor work within
a cyclical relationship wherein the oppressed may become the
oppressor upon gaining their freedom. The struggle is to find
and maintain humanity:
“…the oppressed must not, in seeking to regain their humanity,
become in turn oppressors of the oppressor, but rather restorers
of the humanity of both.” (Freire, p.26)
Yet Freire also recognizes the fear that freedom can engender.
Indeed, to be free means to shed what is known and what is
comfortable.
“The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor
and adopted his guidelines are fearful of freedom. Freedom
would require them to eject this image and replace it with
autonomy and responsibility. Freedom is acquired by conquest,
not by gift.” (Freire, p. 29)

“The oppressed suffer from the duality which has established
itself in their innermost being. They discover that without
freedom they cannot exist authentically. Yet, although they
desire authentic existence, they fear it. They are at one and the
same time themselves and the oppressor whose consciousness
they have internalized.” (Freire, p. 30)
Pedagogy of the Oppressed:
What does Freire Argue?
“The pedagogy of the oppressed is an instrument for their
critical discovery that both they and their oppressor are
manifestations of dehumanization.” (Freire, p. 30)
Freire argues that the oppressed must recognize and then fight
against their oppression.
“As long as the oppressed remain unaware of the causes of their
condition, they fatalistically “accept” their exploitation.”
(Freire, p. 46)
“The pedagogy of the oppressed, as a humanist and libertarian
pedagogy has two distinct states. In the first, the oppressed
unveil the world of oppression and through the praxis commit
themselves to its transformation. In the second stage, in which
the reality of oppression has already been transformed, this
pedagogy ceases to belong to the oppressed and becomes a
pedagogy of all people in the process of permanent liberation.”
(Freire, p. 37)
4
Are we the Oppressors?
Do some Charter Schools maintain oppressive practices and
contribute to the cycle of the oppressed, oppressor dichotomy
within the U.S.?

5
Are we the Oppressors?
Take a moment to consider the following questions:
Thinking about the ways in which our education system works
within hierarchies of power and the ways in which our
education system views students, are we the oppressors?
Does our participation in the education system maintain
oppressive policies?
How do we, as educators working within a rigid bureaucracy,
work to change this within our classroom without losing our
jobs?
Are we afraid of freedom in the ways that Freire
argues the oppressed fear freedom?
The Banking Concept of Education
The banking system describes a form of education based on the
assumptions that educators “deposit” knowledge into our
students, the depositories. The system relies on the following
assumptions:
The teacher teaches and the students are taught
The teacher knows everything and the students know nothing
The teacher thinks and the students are thought about
The teacher talks and the students listen--meekly
The teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined
The teacher chooses and enforces his choice and the
students comply
The teacher acts and the students have the illusion of
acting through the action of the teacher

The teacher chooses the program content and the students
(who were not consulted) adapt to it
The teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his or her
own profession authority which he or she sets in opposition to
the freedom of students
The teacher is the subject of the learning process while the
pupils are mere objects.
7
Inquiry Based Learning
Freire claims that the banking approach to education
dehumanizes students as well as teachers as both parties
participate in an oppressive system.
Freire would argue that rather than treat our students as deposits
for our knowledge, we engage them in their education so as to
free them from the oppression of the banking system.
8
Inquiry Based Learning
What does or would inquiry based learning look like in your
own classroom?
Do you agree with this approach to education or would you
argue that Freire was wrong in his claim that the banking
system dehumanizes our students?
Is there a middle ground that would better serve students and
maintain both teacher and student humanity?

Critique of Freire
Freire fails to mention many of the larger issues facing schools
Testing
Standards
Curriculum
Role of Parents
Etc.
In our Country…
Let’s explore three topics:
The achievement gap (along both racial and class)
The school to prison pipeline
Is education the civil rights issue of our time?
11
The Achievement Gap
Read the following three articles and consider if the existing
(and ever growing achievement gap) is the result of a system of
oppression:
Black Students face more Discipline
Education Gap Grows
The Achievement Gap (If you want even MORE background)
The School to Prison Pipeline
Read the following three articles and consider the oppressive
nature of our school system and the cycleof oppression it

engenders:
The New Jim Crow
Michelle Alexander interviewed
Awesome Infographic
Is Education the Civil Rights Issue of our Time?
Read the following articles and consider whether education is
the civil rights issue of our time:
Why Inequality Persists?
Is Education the Civil Rights Issue of our time?
EDUCATION and FREEDOM
Josef Stalin:
Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in
his hands and at whom it is aimed.
Education creates freedom
John Adams:
Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of
freedom.
Frederick Douglass:
To educate a man is to unfit him to be a slave.
Thomas Jefferson:
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of
civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

James Monroe:
Let us by wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence
among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties.
Dr. Benjamin Rush:
Freedom can exist only in the society of knowledge. Without
learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights.
Education creates freedom
Epictetus:
We must not believe the many, who say that only free people
ought to be educated, but we should rather believe the
philosophers who say that only the educated are free.
James A. Garfield:
Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education,
without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently
maintained.
James Madison,:
A popular government without popular information or the means
of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or
perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a
people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm
themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
William Godwin:
Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free.
Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power
can stand against the artillery of opinion.
Control of education means control of people, minds, opinions,
and society

Diogenes:
The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.
William Godwin:
Government will not fail to employ education to strengthen its
hands and perpetuate its institutions.
Francisco Ferrer:
Governments have ever been known to hold a high hand over
the education of the people. They know, better than anyone else,
that their power is based almost entirely on the school. Hence,
they monopolize it more and more.
Eric Schaub:
Can we truly expect those who aim to exploit us to be trusted to
educate us?
and society
Thomas Hodgskin:
Men had better be without education than be educated by their
rulers; for their education is but the mere breaking in of the
steer to the yoke; the mere discipline of the hunting dog, which,
by dint of severity, is made to forego the strongest impulse of
his nature, and instead of devouring his prey, to hasten with it
to the feet of his master.
Helen Hegener:
Our tightly controlled educational system mocks the promise of
democracy. With a closed educational system we simply cannot
have an open political system. The current situation allows the
government and big business to manufacture and maintain our
culture for us, and in turn, control remains in the hands of the

experts and institutions. The ability to change this situation is
in the hands of the individuals and families who understand why
change is necessary.
and society
Frank Chodorov:
The more subsidized it is, the less free it is. What is known as
"free education" is the least free of all, for it is a state-owned
institution; it is socialized education - just like socialized
medicine or the socialized post office - and cannot possibly be
separated from political control.
Neal Boortz:
How many Catholic schools do you think teach the students to
question the authority of the Pope? Do you believe Christian
schools teach students to question or challenge the authority of
Jesus Christ? Do military schools teach the cadets to challenge
the authority of superior officers? Well, why should we then
expect government schools to teach children to question the
authority of government?
Abraham Lincoln:
The philosophy of the classroom today will be the philosophy of
government tomorrow.
The purpose of “public” education?
Jack Hugh:
Historically, much of the motivation for public schooling has
been to stifle variety and institute social control.
Marshall Fritz:
In all countries, in all centuries, the primary reason for

government to set up schools is to undermine the politically
weak by convincing their children that the leaders are good and
their policies are wise. The core is religious intolerance. The
sides simply change between the Atheists, Catholics,
Protestants, Unitarians, etc., depending whether you are talking
about the Soviet Union, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, America,
etc. A common second reason is to prepare the boys to go to war
and the girls to cheer them on.
Edward Zehr:
I wouldn't call it fascism exactly, but a political system
nominally controlled by an irresponsible, dumbed down
electorate who are manipulated by dishonest, cynical, controlled
mass media that dispense the propaganda of a corrupt political
establishment can hardly be described as democracy either.
Sir Winston Churchill:
Schools have not necessarily much to do with education... they
are mainly institutions of control, where basic habits must be
inculcated in the young. Education is quite different and has
little place in school.
Benjamin Disraeli:
Wherever is found what is called a paternal government, there is
found state education. It has been discovered that the best way
to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the
nursery.
Jonathan Kozol:
The first goal and primary function of the U.S. public school is
not to educate good people, but good citizens. It is the function
which we call - in enemy nations - 'state indoctrination.'

Albert Einstein:
The ruling class has the schools and press under its thumb. This
enables it to sway the emotions of the masses.
Richard Mitchell:
Where once a tyrant had to wish that his subjects had but one
common neck that he might strangle them all at once, all he has
to do now is to 'educate the people' so that they will have but
one common mind to delude.
John Holt:
People who make careers out of helping others -- sometimes at
great sacrifice, often not -- usually don't like to hear that those
others might get along fine, might even get along better,
without their help.
Making a case for homeschooling
Max Victor Belz:
I don't want my children fed or clothed by the state, but if I had
to choose, I would prefer that to their being educated by the
state.
Stephen Arons:
Why is it that millions of children who are pushouts or dropouts
amount to business as usual in the public schools, while one
family educating a child at home becomes a major threat to
universal public education and the survival of democracy?
George Bernard Shaw:
The only time my education was interrupted was when I was in
school.
My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be

teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent
which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at
home by myself.
Mark Twain:
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
Making a case for homeschooling
Margaret Mead:
My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept
me out of school.
Manfred B. Zysk:
A family member asked my wife, "Aren't you concerned about
his (our son's) socialization with other kids?" My wife gave this
response: "Go to your local middle school, junior high, or high
school, walk down the hallways, and tell me which behavior you
see that you think our son should emulate.“
Joseph Sobran:
In 100 years we have gone from teaching Latin and Greek in
high school to teaching Remedial English in college.
Steve Dasbach:
Government schools can't teach reading, writing, and arithmetic
-- why should we trust them to teach morality, respect, and
character? If public education does for ethics what it's done for
learning, we'll end up with a generation of immoral,
disrespectful, and characterless students.
Self-sufficiency, not dependence on government, creates
freedom
Mark Twain:
The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the

private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless
trouble, through the rivaly of schools and creeds that are
anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger
that our people will lose our independence of thought and action
which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the
helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his
government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked,
to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die,
and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle
to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future
admission to paradise.
Self-sufficiency, not dependence on government, creates
freedom
James Madison:
If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general
welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general
welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands;
they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and
pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their
own hands the education of children, establishing in like
manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the
provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all
roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the
highest object of state legislation down to the most minute
object of police, would be thrown under the power of
Congress... Were the power of Congress to be established in the
latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations,
and transmute the very nature of the limited Government
established by the people of America.
Walter E. Williams, quotes about Education:
Experts and the educated elite have replaced what worked with
what sounded good. Society was far more civilized before they

took over our schools, prisons, welfare programs, police
departments and courts. It's high time we ran these people out
of our lives and went back to common sense.
Freedom of Will and Determinism
Determinism ( Hard Determinism)Determinism is the theory
that everything in the universe is governed by causal laws.
(Thomas Hobbes ( See Facebook group and Baron D’ Holbach
see Pojman 387-389).
The theory is based on the materialist physicalism theory of
mind and body.
As we recall the materialist argues that everything that exists is
matter. Humans have no souls or mind, and what determines
action is desires interests and brain activities. ( See lecture on
the Mind-Body Problem)
Determinism ( Hard Determinism)Determinism argues that we
have no moral choices and no moral responsibilities.
Our actions are predetermined by physical causes.
If we were omniscient we would predict everything that will
happen in the future.
Therefore, every human actions are event. Human actions are
determined ( they are not free choices) by causal laws. (Pojman
Pp 378-379)
Vocabulary: omniscient: ‫ملاع‬ ‫لكب‬ ‫ءىش‬, ‫يلك‬ ‫ملعلا‬

The structure of the Argument The basic argument of hard
determinism is as follows:P1: No action is free if it must
occur.P2: For any event X there are antecedent causes that
ensure the occurrence of X in accordance with impersonal,
mechanical causal laws.C: No action is free.
Thus, since causes guarantee that their effects occur and since
everything that happens is the effect of some cause or set of
causes, everything must occur. So nothing is free.
Immanuel Kant Objection to Determinism Kant argued that the
principle of universal causality is a synthetic a priori-that is, an
assumption that we cannot prove by experience but simply
cannot conceive not to be the case.
Kant thought that w are programmed to think in deterministic
manner. Nevertheless the notion of morality provided a
powerful incentive to believe in freedom of will. Kant’s
Dilemma (Pojman Pp. 379-380).
When I have a choice I ask about the what choices do I have and
what reasons will cause my action.
Kant’s Objection to DeterminismKant says persons are like
things in the sense that physical laws apply to their bodies;
Persons are NOT like things because they can be conscious of
the operation of these laws. (A thing is just subject to laws; it is
not conscious of being subject to laws.)
People can thus be aware of physical and psychological laws as
observers, from the outside.

When a person thinks about how to behave, a person considers
reasons not causes and effects.
Causes are never relevant to someone's action. When I have to
make choices, and I choose my action on the basis of reasons.
Libertarianism ( freedom of will)Libertarianism is the theory
that we do have free wills.Libertarians do not contend that all
our actions are free, only some of them.Libertarians offer two
main arguments for this position:
The argument from deliberation and
the argument from moral responsibility. ( Pojman Pp. 381-
382).This position is argued by William James Pojman P.p 389-
399 and by Corliss Lamont (Pojman Pp. 399-402).
The Argument from DeliberationThe argument from
deliberation sates that every human being is free to make the
choices he does and that deliberations leading to these choices
follows. ( Pojman P 381).
Vocabulary Deliberate: ‫سوردم‬, ‫دمعتم‬, ‫ىورم‬ ‫هيف‬, ‫نأتم‬, ‫ورم‬,
,‫موزون‬
The Argument from Moral ResponsibilityDeterminism conflicts
with the thesis that we have moral responsibilities.
This moral responsibility implies that we have a choice to make
between good and evil actions.
We take moral responsibility very seriously because we believe
that do have duties, oughts, over which we feel rational guilt for
failing to perform.

There can be no rational feelings of guilt if we were not
essentially free.
Compatibilism One of the answers to freedom of will and
determinism is a middle ground between the two.This view is
called soft determinism or compatibilism. It is similar to Kant’s
view.Soft determinism or compatibilism argues that we are
determined, but we still have moral responsibilities. The
distinction is made between voluntary and involuntary actions.
The language of freedom and the language of determinism are
both necessary for man kind. One is necessary for science and
the other is necessary for morality and personal relationships. (
Pojman P.p 382-383)Walter T. Stace takes this position (Pojman
411-416)
Essay Question
Are human beings fully determined or are they free agents
having a moral responsibility for their actions.
Write a paper arguing your position on this question. In
your paper you should summarize the different positions (
determinism, libertarianism and compatibilism and then present
your position. Use real life examples to contextualize your
answer. Is the Revolution in Egypt determined by existing
causes or is it a call for freedom by free and rational agents
seeking liberation, or is it a combination of causes and free
will).
In order to write your essay you should all read pages 37-
383. Then you should read the articles of Baron D’Holbach
(383-389), William James (389-399), Corliss Lamont (399-402)
and W.T. Stace,(411-417) to make a choice of the position you

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