Philosophy Study Guide Free Will 1 The difference between compatibilism and incompatibilism is that compatibilism states that free will and determinism are compatible While incompatibilism holds the view that free will and determinism are not compatible Determinism is that a complete description of the universe at one time and all the laws of nature together entail a complete description of the universe at every other time The consequence argument for incompatibilism argument states 1 No one has a choice about what laws of nature are 2 No one has a choice about what the distant past was 3 If determinism is true than the laws of the distant past and nature together determines everything they do If you have no choice about some fact F and F entails some other fact G then you have no choice about G either 4 5 Therefore if determinism is true than we have no control over what we do 2 The luck argument goes as follows 1 2 3 If indeterminism is true then when someone makes a choice there is an alternate scenario that is exactly the same except they choose something else If scenarios are exactly the same except for choice then nothing makes the difference between them the difference between them is luck If the difference between the scenarios is just luck then the person has no choice about what happens 4 Therefore if indeterminism is true than no one has a choice about what happens Chisholm says that to overcome the luck problem sometimes our reasons do cause our actions or incline without necessitating and sometimes we rise above them and do something other than what we are motivated to do He believes in causation or that the agent themselves causes the action over anything else 3 Periboom is believes in incompatibilism or that determinism and free will are incompatible He also believes that free will does not exist and as a result we are not responsible for our actions so we should not be punished nor blamed for anything Periboom suggests that we could justify practices instead through utility self defense or even quarantine 4 The old views of conditional analysis of the ability to do otherwise are 1 He could have done otherwise And 2 If he had chosen do to otherwise then he would have done otherwise The standard objection to this is that 1 and 2 are equivalent because the person may have not been able to choose otherwise Ayer argues on the side of compatibilism He proposes to add the following to the conditional analysis to overcome the problem 3 His action was voluntary 4 No one compelled him to do it 5 The principle of alternate possibilities states that a person is only morally responsible for an action if they could have done otherwise Frankfurt argues against this argument because he believes that a person is only morally responsible if they did the action freely Frankfurt says that the fact that they could they could not have done otherwise does not necessarily explain their action Frankfurt says that the Principle for Alternate Possibilities should instead state that a person is not morally responsible for what he has done ONLY because he could not have done otherwise Ethics 1 Psychological egoism is the theory that everyone is motivated only by self interest In other words everyone is selfish The argument for egoism from pleasure says that when a person gets what he wants he gets pleasure or satisfaction from it This pleasure or satisfaction is what is really motivating him and he only does other things to get it So he is selfish because all he really wants is his own pleasure Feinberg objects to this argument by stating that the argument has a false premise Sometimes we don t get pleasure or satisfaction when we get what we want It s also invalid Consider the argument that because a ship always consumes fuel to travel that the point of the trip is to consume the fuel 2 Utilitarianism is a bundle of thesis including hedonism maximization and consequentialism Hedonism is the theory that pleasure is the only thing that has value Maximization is the theory that the right action is the one that produces the best consequence or most value Consequentialism is the theory that whether an action is right or wrong depends solely on its consequences Therefore utilitarianism would claim that a person s motives or intentions do not figure into whether an action is right or wrong because the consequences are what matters 3 Quantitative hedonism is the theories that all pleasures are the same but only differ in quantity and you can measure them through the intensity duration and extent Qualitative hedonism states that some pleasures are better than others no matter the quantity Mills argues that we can know that some pleasures are better than others because if someone who has experienced both mental and physical pleasures competent judge to be better than another kind then it is Competent judges measure mental pleasures to be better than physical pleasures Therefore mental pleasures are better than physical pleasures 4 Mill s proof that pleasure is the only intrinsic good is that the only proof that people have of a visible object is that they can see it and the only proof people have that sound is audible is that they can hear it Therefore the sole evidence that anything is desirable is that people do desire it If anything is desired at an end we have the only evidence we have that it is desirable at the end Happiness is desired at the end Therefore we have the only evidence that can be had that happiness is desirable as an end The standard objection to this is that visible is capable of being seen and audible is capable of being heard but desire does not mean capable of being desired It means worthy of desire Hence just because something is desired as an end does not mean it is desirable as an end i A hypothetical imperatives is conditional and only commands those who satisfy the condition For example If you want coffee go to the coffee shop Categorical imperatives are unconditional like Go to the coffee shop It commands regardless of what the commander wants ii Kant claims that there is only one categorical command known as the Universal Law that goes Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it become 5 universal law iii An example of this categorical imperative at work is if you were at a red light running late for work and no one was coming You could run the red light only if you willed it be universal law meaning that everyone else in the world