Introduction to Philosophy
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Dr. Ned Beach, Instructor
Fall, 2007

Click Here for Study Guide for the First Test: Part Two: Essays

Key term #1:

Explain in two or three sentences what is meant by "determinism."

Student's Answer: Determinism is the idea that every action is simply a reaction caused by a certain combination of stimuli.

Comment: Yes, this is correct. It would help to add that, according to this theory, every detail comprising any given action is rigidly determined by causal necessity. There is no aspect or feature of any action that can turn our any differently from the way it was always necessarily going to be. In other words for any event E, there is some set of determining conditions {C1, C2, ... Cn} such that, given those conditions, E and only E can and must occur. Consequently, if one could know all the determining data, it would be possible in principle to predict all future events, even those involving human agency and choice.

Key term #2:

Explain in two or three sentences what is meant by "indeterminism."

Student's Answer: Indeterminism is the direct denial of determinism.  According to this theory, some events do occur without having a set of completely determining conditions.  Therefore, such events are not in principle predictable.

Comment: Yes, this is correct. According to indeterminism, there can be an event E that lacks determining conditions {C1, C2, ... Cn} such that, given those conditions, E and only E  must occur. Events of this nature are said to occur on the subatomic level, according to quantum physics, where randomness prevails. Consequently, even if one knew all the determining data, it would still be impossible in principle to predict the outcome of such quantum events.  However, on the macro scale of humanly observable events, the randomness is for the most part eliminated by the statistical probabilities ranging over huge numbers of minute quantum events

Key Term #3: 

Explain what is meant by "free will," both in the strong sense used by hard determinists and in the weaker sense advocated by soft determinists.

Student's Answer: Hard determinism uses this idea to say that there is no free will at all because all human actions are just events caused by other events. Soft determinism, on the other hand, says that free will does exist because humans can make actions caused by internal or external stimuli. An action caused by an internal stimulus can be said to be a free action because there is no direct cause outside of the agent making the action.

Comment: Yes, this is good. According to soft determinism (also known as "soft voluntarism" or "compatibilism") free will is compatible with strict causal necessity. The reason for this is that by a "free act" one really only means (or should only mean) a voluntary act -- something that the agent himself or herself personally wanted to do. For the hard determinist, on the other hand, this is so much verbal sophistry: for if the agent's wishes and goals are themselves rigidly determined by antecedent conditions -- if they are in principle predictable -- then to call such actions "free" is meaningless.

Key Term #4: 

Explain what is meant by "hard determinism."

Student's Answer: Hard determinism says that because determinism is true, therefore free will does not exist.

Comment: This is essentially correct. It would help to point out, in addition, that the concept of "free will" being denied by the hard determinist is one that would admit the possibility of doing something other than what heredity and environment determine. For the hard determinist, it is absurd to believe in free will, because that idea involves the false supposition that it is possible for human beings to do otherwise than what they were always necessarily going to do. Since all human actions are in principle predictable, according to the hard determinist, therefore free will does not exist.

Key Term #5: 

Explain what is meant by "soft determinism," also known as "soft voluntarism" or "compatibilism."

Student's Answer:  Soft determinism says that although determinism is true, free will can exist.  An act is "free," according to the soft determinist, if and when the agent inwardly wants to do whatever it is that he or she has been determined to do.

Comment: Again, this is is essentially correct. It would help to point out, in addition, that this view is known as "compatibilism" because it admits that a person's inward desires are completely determined by heredity and environment, and therefore in principle predictable.  The same position can also be labeled as "soft voluntarism" (or "soft free-will-ism") because it is the concept of "free will" that gets watered down in this case, not the notion of determinism as such.

Key Term #6: 

Explain what is meant by "self determinism."

Student's Answer:  Self determinism holds that determinism (whether of the "hard" or "soft" variety) is false.  For some events -- namely, for some human acts -- there is no set of antecedent conditions which suffice to produce a given act.

Comment: Yes, this is good (not surprisingly, since it comes straight out of the textbook).  It is worth mentioning, as well, that self determinism posits the existence of a remarkable entity called a "self," which is, in Taylor's words, a "rather strange metaphysical notion ... never applied elsewhere in nature."  This concept involves the idea of an entity which is neither an event in nature nor a collection of events, but rather a noumenal sort of agency whose true character lies beyond the limits of empirical verification (and which may not even exist).  Although there may not be such a thing as a "self," in Taylor's (or Kant's) sense, it could be that there is.  Even though its existence may be unverifiable by empirical means, there might still be good reasons (for example, moral reasons) for positing an entity such as a "self" that would be capable of independently determining certain human actions.  Such cases would be those where it could be appropriate to use a notion like "free will."

Key Term #7: 

Explain what Menninger means by the "therapeutic attitude."

Student's Answer:  This is an attitude, recommended especially for people in the penal system, to regard criminal behavior as a sort of social disease -- a disease which it is (or should be) the main goal or our correctional facilities to  cure.

Comment: Yes, this is correct.  One might also mention that what Menninger names the "therapeutic attitude" is essentially the same as what Lewis labels "the humanitarian theory of punishment."  According to this view, it is both ethically wrong and pragmatically counterproductive to make a point of ensuring that criminals would "pay" for their crimes against society.  The primary purpose of our correctional system should be to reduce the level of criminal behavior in society, and to do so in the most efficient and least costly manner possible.  Menninger supports the therapeutic attitude, while Lewis raises objections to it.