Pat’s Responsibility When Pat agreed to take care of my plants, she became responsible for their livelihood and any harm that befell them, whether that harm was of her own doing or that of others. The matter of whether or not we should be held accountable for our actions have been highly debated. There are those, like Hume and Chisholm, who agree that we possess free will and are therefore morally responsible for any action we freely cause. Responsibility, according to philosopher Hans Lenk, "is a concept expressed by a relational system of attribution in terms of an expectation of an action or its result. [Therefore,] one is responsible or takes responsibility to someone for something in the face of some consequence, and this also has to …show more content…
He believes that the disagreement between incompatibilist like Chisholm and Holbach are due to a misunderstanding of the terms free will and determinism. Hume believes that there is a connection between events, such as uniformity in culture, nature and human behavior that proves that determinism exists, however that we also possess free will in the fact that had we chosen to do otherwise, we would have done otherwise. Whereas Chisholm argues that determinism does not exist, he believes free will exists in the sense that we sometimes act freely and are therefore responsible for our actions. Although their definitions of freewill are different in relation to determinism, both Hume and Chisholm agree that an individual is an agent causer who possesses free will, and to possess free will means one must be held morally responsible for his/her …show more content…
To this a possible response is that Hume’s definition of determinism is relative to uniformity in things such as nature, culture and general human behavior; this uniformity coexists with the notion of Hume’s definition of free will which states that “if one had chosen to do otherwise, one would have done otherwise.” In this case Pat is not being controlled by some higher power that exists in nature, nor is it a norm among humans to kill plants after agreeing to take care of them. To agree to take care of my plants and then do the opposite is unethical. As such, since Pat possesses free will as well as determinism, she could have chosen to not dump the poison on my plants, but instead she did and is therefore morally responsible for her
Determinism is a doctrine suggesting that for every event there exist conditions that could cause no alternative event. Free will is a philosophical term describing a particular sort of capacity of rational agents to choose a course of action from among various alternatives. Understandably, the dichotomy between these two concepts is a topic philosophers have debated over for many years. As a result of these debates, a number of alternative philosophical perspectives arguing for the existence of free will, namely libertarianism and compatibilism, have emerged, existing in stark contrast to determinism. In order to ascertain the extent to which free will is compatible with determinism, one must first consider these different approaches to
First of all, determinism is an event which is causally governed by the laws of nature. In his paper, Ayer outlines his dilemma of free will, there seems to be no free will, events happen out of either accident or determinism. His argument is that free will opposes to constraint, not causality, nonetheless still have free will. He tries to solve the problem considering whether an event was an accident or not. He claims that events are only free when: 1. I would have acted otherwise if I had chosen to, 2. my actions were voluntary, and 3. nobody compelled me to choose as I did. If we believe the event was not an accident, we are back to the idea of natural laws causing the events. Chisholm proposes that human beings are agents which do not
In the study of philosophy, Free will is defined as “The ability to choose, think, and act voluntarily. Many people wonder if they truly have free will to make their own choices, or is everything pre-determined for them in order to carry out their lifestyle. I’m sure we all wonder if our choices are correct or incorrect or if we are able to take control of our lives. Philosophers Hume and Holbach have concepts that seek to prove whether or not free will actually does exist and they both use their philosophical beliefs based on determinism in order to properly explore their concepts of free will. This paper will actively seek to explain both concepts and will expose what problems may arise from their philosophical theories of free will in relation
Before one can properly evaluate the entire debate that enshrouds the Free Will/Determinism, each term must have a meaning, but before we explore the meaning of each term, we must give a general definition. Determinism is, "Everything that happens is caused to happen. (Clifford Williams. "Free Will and Determinism: A Dialogue" pg 3). This is the position that Daniel, a character in Williams’ dialogue, chooses to believe and defend. David Hume goes a little deeper and explains in his essay, "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding of Liberty and Necessity," that determinism is this: "It is universally allowed, that matter, in all its operations, is actuated by a necessary force, and
In respect to the arguments of Ayer and Holbach, the dilemma of determinism and its compatibility with that of free will are found to be in question. Holbach makes a strong case for hard determinism in his System of Nature, in which he defines determinism to be a doctrine that everything and most importantly human actions are caused, and it follows that we are not free and therefore haven’t any moral responsibility in regard to our actions. For Ayer, a compatibilist believing that free will is compatible with determinism, it is the reconciliation and dissolution of the problem of determinism and moral responsibility with free willing that is argued. Ayer believes that
In this essay I will explain why I think the strongest position of the free will debate is that of the hard determinists and clarify the objection that moral responsibility goes out the door if we don’t have free will by addressing the two big misconceptions that are associated with determinists: first that determinism is an ethical system, and secondly that contrary to common belief determinists do believe in the concept of cause and effect. I will also begin by explaining my position and why I believe that the position of the indeterminist does not hold water as an argument and the third