| A Position on Determinism |
| Hard Determinism in Light of Modern Psychology and Philosophy |
Free Will and Determinism
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Hard Determinism in Light of Modern Psychology and Philosophy
by John Winn
| A Position on Determinism |
| Hard Determinism in Light of Modern Psychology and Philosophy |
|
Science as a tool to justify the physical world around us has been very beneficial in explaining everyday phenomena, from lightning to potholes. The juxtaposition of science with other disciplines has resulted in systematic ways of accumulating knowledge. One example of this is the relatively new growth of psychology from the meandering depths of classical philosophy. More specifically, it is the mind-brain problem that has inspired psychologists to incorporate science to discover the workings of the brain and what is deemed as behavior. In order to fully understand the mind-brain problem philosophy poses, it would require scores of viewpoints and volumes of texts, and that is beyond the scope of this essay. For the purposes of this discussion, the topic of hard determinism and human behavior will be supported in detail with respect to Paul Holbach's essay, The Illusion of Free Will. Jean-Paul Sartre and C.A. Campbell are two philosophers who contend his case for determinism and its incompatibility with any important sense of free will. Moreover, these philosophers' objections will be scrutinized in the light of modern science and Holbach's arguments.
Holbach firmly boasts in his essay that free will is an illusion derived from the human perceptions of will. He states that the "errors of philosophers on the free agency of man, have arisen from their regarding his will as the primum mobile, the original motive of his actions," and that the will is composed of complicated causes and actions of the brain. Holbach strongly suggests that the actions of humans are never free; moreover, these actions are the result "of one's temperance, of one's received ideas, of one's notions...of one's opinions, of one's education, and by daily experience." What he implies is that every thought that crosses our minds is passed through all mental processors to form a motive. With this motive we are pressed to take action, for example, walk across the street or eat a hot dog. Choices, he would argue, are merely the supplanting of the motive with a newer one. This is the basis of his essay-his attempts to undermine free will as an acceptable explanation of human nature are fostered by the examples he draws from everyday experience. Madness, for instance, may seem like an unconventional state of mind that has no bearing on any prior action. In other words, it seems as if it is spontaneous, but is really not. Holbach says that madness is "a state, that depends upon the heat of the blood, not upon the will. A fanatic or a hero, braves death as necessarily as a more phlegmatic man or coward flies from it." Holbach continuosly objects the propositions of the free will argument. He acknowledges that those who believe in free will hold that it is totally attainable in the absence of obstacles "competent to oppose themselves to the actions of man, or to the exercise of his faculties." This means that people are subjected to restrictions imposed by nature and by societies, and thus free will, which is inherent, is inhibited and is not fully expressed. Holbach would reason that free will originally does not exist and that one cannot speak of it. He says that one "is not more master of the obstacles; they are the necessary effects of either interior or exterior causes, which always act according to their given properties." By interior or exterior causes, he means that one cannot help but to be subject to the environment and other influences that aggregate and produce the motive in our minds. In many ways, Holbach lays out the guidelines for behaviorism. He comes to a conclusion that all human actions have sufficient causes or theoretically predictable, and he realizes that human actions are complex systems and have a lot of variables. It was remarkable in his age that he made the leap to challenge the status quo and derive some rudimentary tenets of modern behaviorism. Through scientific progress, scientists have discovered the laws of human motivation that regulate our actions in life. These new disciplines in genetics, learned behaviors, instinct, and culture are growing, and evidence is surmounting to identify and isolate causes to human behavior. B.F. Skinner was such a scientist who provided a solid interpretation of behavior in animals, including human beings. Skinner observed that higher ordered living organisms exhibit consistent patterns in behavior when subjected to controlled environments and situations. He could predict a certain response as a specific stimulus was applied to the test subject, for example, a student salivates when he hears the bell and opens the microwave door to grab his pizza. Furthermore, the subjects could be conditioned to similarly react to a specific stimulus; in this case, the student would salivate whenever he hears the microwave bell even if there is no pizza. This behavior will be prolonged if there is positive reinforcement, which is the pizza, and will be gone if there is negative reinforcement, which is no pizza. Acknowledging Skinner's research findings is important in supporting the theme of hard determinism-our behaviors are predictable and that we react in accordance to our mental and biological motives. Jean-Paul Sartre is a philosopher of the twentieth century, and thus, he was subjected to the revolutionary breakthroughs in science, medicine, and technology. In spite of this, he formulated his own philosophy that lies primarily outside the realms of science-existentialism, which fits under libertarianism (the view that human actions are neither determined nor fortuitous). Sartre examines the human condition and concludes that humans are "condemned to be free," and are confronted to face life alone and guideless. Anguish, forlorness, and despair are words that he uses to describe the human condition, for one is so free to act upon one's life, one has to cope with these existential emotions and act upon one's life to derive meaning. Sartre states that there is the illusion of determinism, and he succinctly coins it as "bad faith." Most people, he would argue, create this illusion by refusing to accept the fact that one is free and thus establish a pseudopurpose for one's life. This begins to sound circular when trying to defend it from a determinist's point of view, for how is one able to develop a conscience and an understanding of the world before one is able to conclude such an idea? It is determined that one develops mentally and physically, then it becomes a matter of motives as one asks questions and philosophizes on life and the universe. A. C. Campbell defines freedom in which the agent in question is the sole author of an action and could have chosen otherwise. Free will, he maintains, doesn't depend upon the circumstances of an action; rather, it depends on moral effort. Holbach insufficiently answers this question. Holbach poses a responsibility dilemma in that there is no personal responsibility. If there is no personal responsibility, then that raises the question of how we should live in societies-how do we interact and judge one another? This determinist view is likened to a society of robots in which each robot carries out successive actions according to one's own motives. Campbell would deem that as extreme selfishness and would respond by saying that one has the choice to make judgments and the right decisions. Moral effort is the guideline to life and one purely makes the choice to abide by it or not. Today, genetic research is at a frantic and bewildering pace due to the realization that DNA, besides shaping our morphology, contributes greatly to our personality and behavior. Many scientists claim to have overwhelming evidence that the genetic code predetermines human aspects, from habits to likes and dislikes. If this is found to be true, then the case for determinism grows with every advance in this area of research-humans have no choice in their lives but to live as biologically motivated beings limited by what DNA spells out for their lives. |
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