Free Will Debate

1. Free Will Debate • Starter – John Locke says imagine a sleeping man is placed in a room with two closed doors, Door A and Door B. When he wakes up he chooses to walk out via Door A. What he did not know is that Door B was locked. • What is Locke inferring here? Are we in a locked room? What are some illusions of choice? Do you agree?

2. Define Free Will

3. Learning Objectives • To encounter and understand an outline of the different approaches to free will • To reflect on one’s initial standpoint with reference to libertarianism, hard determinism and soft determinism • Hospers – “The ability to do otherwise.” • Free will quotes reminders and note down • Rob Cook – Dialogue article discussion and questions

4. Spectrum of Freedom Complete Free Will No Free will Hard Determinism (Incompatibilism)– the idea that human autonomy and freedom does not exist and moral decisions are controlled by external factors Soft Determinism – the idea that human freedom is limited by some external factors but we are still partly responsible for our choices Libertarianism – (Compatibilism) The idea that humans have free will when making decisions

5. Arguments/Debates • For the following keywords and explain what relevance the word might have and what position it is supporting. • genetics, chaos theory, responsibility, punishment, laws of society, laws of physics, upbringing, spontaneity, love, chance, fate, omniscient, environment, nature, nurture.

6. Rob Cook –Key Points • Spinoza – infinite chain limiting freedom • I deliberate in order to decide what to do not to discover what it is that I am going to do. R. Taylor – critique determinism. • Decisions are an inevitable result of nature AND nurture. • All physical events have a cause – scientific revolution.

7. Summary • 1 - Place each word on the spectrum in terms of which position it is supporting and how strongly. • 2 - Rate it from 1-10 in terms of how good an argument you think it is. • 3 - Where do you stand on the spectrum poll everywhere?