2nd mid-term TEST one week from today-NEXT TUESDAY- we will have a study guide on Thursday and a review in class.

FREE WILL - 3 various positions:
1.) Determinism - says there are no free acts.
2.) Libertarianism - says there are SOME free acts.
3.) Soft-Determinism - a free act = an act in which the agent COULD HAVE DONE OTHERWISE.

Determinism: psychological review; behaviorist view(Pavlov's dog); Freudian view EACH OF THESE VIEWS SHARES THE THOUGHT THAT THERE ARE NO FREE ACTS! GIVEN THE SAME CIRCUMSTANCES...
A determinist says that everything leading up to a choice determines the outcome.
A libertarian says that even though there are events that lead up to a choice- they do NOT determine the outcome.
DETERMINISM: An argument from from Physics
l. Matter is determined if
a. -it obeys the laws of C&E (Cause and Effect)ie: if you have the same antecedent conditions, you will get the same results.
Example: take potassium
sulphur !BANG!
charcoal AN EXPLOSION
and add heat
CONCLUSION: WE ARE DETERMINED>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Psychology is ultimately biology which can be reduced to chemistry, which can be reduced to physics.
Example: Depression. People don't have enough serotonin. Give them Prozac & they feel O.K.
SINCE MATTER FOLLOWS THE LAWS OF C& E AND WE ARE MATTER, THEM WE ARE DETERMINED.

ACCORDING TO DETERMINISM, NO-ONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS.

OBJECTIONS to the previous argument:
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle
1.Matter is NOT determined
a. you can determine the speed or location of an electron, but NOT both.
b. matter behaves in in-deterministic ways, as in matter behaves like the weather
2. Dualism- argument to the above. Perhaps we are not merely a biological body...perhaps we have a soul and our soul gives us free will.
3. Indeterministic argument in Physics
argument FOR Libertarianism:
free will=free will in the ordinary sense.
a. says that matter is not determined
b. we ARE material beings
Therefore: we are NOT DETERMINED.

Democritus- a natural philosopher said that there are random neurological acts, so, there is NO free will.

Problems:
random does not = free
just because your acts are not determined, does not mean that they are free.

MACRO/MICRO problem: if on a micro level things are random, then on a macro level, things are determined.
Just because determinism is true on the micro level, does not make it true on the macro level.

MAYBE your soul (obeying spiritual laws) is determined, even if your body is not.

LIBERTARIANISM:
1.arg. for indeterminism
in physics.
2.arg. from moral
responsibility.
Example: drunk-driver
vs
seizure victim
each of these people
kills 12 children
while driving a car.
Is one MORE
responsible?
DETERMINISM:
arg. for determinism in physics.
1. Stimulus-Response(B.F.Skinner)
2. Behaviorist argument
3. Psychyanalytical argument
(from the unconsciousness-
before the age of 5-)
A determist would say:
we are beyond
freedom & dignity.
Free will and morality
are social issues.