Carsen O'neill
Theories of Reality
tuesday, december 3rd/compatibilism

Final will be based on free will and arguments for the existence of god. (CH.5 Pgs. 157 to 179.)

compatiblists determine free will as an action you choose even though it's caused.
Compatibilism(soft-determinism)- a solution to the determinism/free-will problem.

Compatibilism agrees with determinism that all actions are caused(scientific,psychological,physiological,genetic,environmental)

Also agrees with libertarianism that we are free and thusly responsible for our actions.(morality)
How can this be?
Compatibilists re-define free-will to make it compatible with determinism. A compatibilist would say "In free acts the cause of the act is some desire or reason belonging to the agent. Causes work together to create desire which is thereupon enacted."

an example that is an argument against hard determinism. ex: A man is driving to work and has an unexpected seizure which causes him to stray from the road and kill ten school children. In another town, a man drinking a beer and talking on the cell phone while fiddling with the radio and speeding, recklessly swerves off the road and kills ten school children. People would be likely (in general) to feel compassion for the seizure victim, even going so far as to console him and tell him it wasn't his fault. Inversely, the man who killed the children because of his reckless abandon would almost certainly be accosted to the fullest extent by an outraged public wielding both morality and the full penalty of law. The argument that this scenario makes against determinism is that, if determinism is true, the people's reactions should be the same regardless of the cause of the accident.

2 counter-examples.

1.Jane marries Cecil (who's rich)because of the way her mother raised her. (mother was always poor, always said that money equals security and security equals happiness etc.) A compatibilist would say she's free.

2.Jane marries Cecil as the result of her therapist being paid off by Cecil to plant favorable hypnotic suggestions in Jane. Compatibilists would say she's not free.

Calvanism- the belief that humans are pre-destined to go to heaven or hell. Basically says that if you weren't meant to go to hell, you simply wouldn't be born with a predisposed hunger for sin and visa-versa.

Arguments against calvanism basically say that it seems unjust. They have compatibilist style freedom but not libertarian (real)style freedom.( no moral responsibility.)

Theism is the belief that god exists(for now mostly dealing with a judeo-christian god)
Atheism is the belief that god doesn't exist.
Agnosticism is not knowing whether god exists or not-no positive or negative belief.

3 theistic arguments

1: ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. an a priori, or independent of experience, argument. It tries to prove that god exists by definition. "If god's existence is possible then it's actual."
Descartes: God is a perfect being. Existence is a perfection- it's more perfect to exist than not to exist. Therefore, god exists. Descartes associates most perfect with most real. [TO BE CONTINUED THURSDAY]...