CLASS NOTES FROM TUESDAY 2/26

Study Guide Handed out for test on Thursday

Theological Determinism: God determines us (Argument against free will)

-Argument from god’s foreknowledge: God knows that at time 1 (T1) that Jones will mow his lawn at (T2), this logically implies that bob mows at (T2)
-God is omniscient (all knowing) - Any omniscient being infallibly knows the future.

For Free Will:
- Argument from Intuition (Campbell / Taylor): It seems from our first person experience that we are free- before we act there appear to be any number of things we could do.
-Objection: Subjective illusion; naive view.

-Everything in our experience tells us that we do have free will, so the burden of truth is on the Determinists to prove that we don’t.

-Argument from Deliberation:
When we are caught up in the moment of decision it seems that we are free to make the choice, but from a third person view it may be determined.

-Choice is a matter of how we developed, and were treated, and the environment we were raised in. (which may all be determined)

-Influence Vs. Necessity: There's a certain amount of freedom within influence. We don’t have the free will to do certain things (ex. jump to the moon, become president).
-Argument from Regret: regret loses its impact with a determinist view, if everything is determined anyway.
-People wouldn’t have regrets if there was no free will.
-A Determinist would say: people regret things because of their false presupposition of free will.

-Argument from poor prediction in psychology and sociology.
-Determinist: Human beings are very complex; psychology is a young science.

-Sartre: makes some interesting points but is lost in confusing language. (Continental Philosophy)
-Radical freedom, we ultimately determine who we are and how we interpret the world. Identity/self concept and meaning of life/how we live is where the freedom lies.
-Bad Faith: acting like you were a passive inner object versus an active agent with freedom.
being for itself = human experience of world
being in itself = the world apart from experience
perverse freedom = the freedom to do what you shouldn’t do; doing something only because you weren’t suppose to do it