On 2/23/2003 12:54:38 PM, Lauren Libbert wrote:

>First, what do determinism and
>libertarianism
>have in common that they don't
>have in common
>with compatiblism? I think
>the answer is that
>determinists and libertarians
>agree that if
>determinism is true then there
>is no free will, while
>compatibilists believe that
>free will exists with
>determinism. Anyone have
>other ideas?

You seem to have this about right. They agree on
the DEFINITION of free will. They disagree on
whether we HAVE it or not. They both agree that
free will as a concept is "the power to have done
otherwise under identical circumstnaces."
Libertarians say we do have this power and
determinists say we don't. Both oppose
compatiblism, which says that free will is doing
what you want to do, even if it's determined
(caused).

>Second, on the topic of Freud
>and Skinner's
>different beliefs about
>determinism, I think the
>answer is that Skinner
>believes absolutely all
>actions are caused by
>unconscious motives while
>Freud believed that only the
>important actions and
>decisions are unconsciously
>motivated. Again, I
>am not entirely sure that I
>have this right

OK, this one you have wrong :-) Freud believes
that all our actions stem from unconscious
motivations, most of which were created in us
before the age of five. It is these irrational motives
which drive our behavior.

Skinner, on the other hand, does not believe
personality or behavior is fixed at this early age or
that what drives behavior is hidden subconscious
motivations. He believed that our behavior is
driven by what has been reinforced or punished.
People make connections between stimuli in their
environment, for example, if as a small child you
reach for things in the store and your mother hits
your hand or spanks you, you feel anxiety and
apprehension the next time you do it (or at least
after a few incidents) and are less likley to do it.
Over time, this grows into an aversion towards
stealing. In the same way, people devleop habits,
such as smoking cigarettes or excercising
regularly, because their brains have associated
these things with a pleasant sensation or the
absence of pain or emotional anxiety).

These theoretical approaches offer
correspondingly different forms of therapy. In
Freudian psychoanalysis, for example, the idea is
to bring hidden subconscious motivations to the
conscious mind through talking about one's
childhood and feelings, perhaps with the aid of
hypnosis, word association, etc. and then the
psychoanalyst looks for patterns and connections
to present problems.

The Skinnerian behaviorist, on the other hand,
tries to see what obvious and hidden rewards one
gets from, say, smoking, and attempts to create an
environment which either punishes smoking or
rewards not smoking. For example, the Shick
center used to give people mild electric shocks or
make them smoke 3 packs of cigarettes in an
enclosed room to get them to associate pain with
smoking. People are also encouraged to reward
themselves for each day they cut down or do not
smoke.

Prof. Borrowdale
borrowdalej@lanecc.edu