Are we free?

1. Should we be held responsible? Are we free? Values, Self & Knowledge

2. Leopold & Loeb • 2 friends conspired to execute the perfect crime • Stabbed to death 14 year old Bobby Franks • Showed no remorse • Caught due to a very small mistake

3. ‘Why did they kill little Bobby Franks? Not for money, not for spite; not for hate. They killed him as they might kill a spider or a fly, for the experience. They killed him because they were made that way. Because somewhere in the infinite processes that go to the making up of the boy or the man something slipped, and those unfortunate lads sit here hated, despised, outcasts, with the community shouting for their blood.’

4. ‘Is Dickey Loeb to blame because out of the infinite forces that conspired to form him, the infinite forces that were at work producing him ages before he was born, that because out of these infinite combinations he was born without it [i.e. a normal emotional system]? If he is, then there should be a new definition for justice.’

5. Am I responsible for how I live? • How should external reality affect how we live? • Physical considerations • Moral considerations? • How does external reality affect how we live? • How much control do we have over how we live?

6. “The Lonely”Imagine you are James Corry

7. Twilight Zone: “The Lonely” • Did Corry come to treat Alicia as more than a robot? • Why does Allenby think it would help to shoot Alicia?

8. How different are we from Alicia? • Every event that occurs has a cause • My action is an event • Therefore, my action has a cause Are we also robots, made of a slightly different material?

9. Determinism • At any time, there is only one way things can be, given the preceding state of things and the laws of nature. State of the world @ T1 State of the world @ T2 State of the world @ T3 Laws of nature @ T2 Laws of nature @ T3 Laws of nature @ T1

10. Determinism & you • If determinism is true, do we have freedom? • Every of our actions is fully explained by the preceding state of the world, including the laws of nature.

11. Fatalism & determinism Key difference: Significance of personal choice I am fated to eat the poison pill iff • I would eat the poison pill • I am unable to avoid eating the poison pill no matter what I choose to do • Determinists can reject (ii). • In a deterministic world, you would be able to avoid eating the poison pill if you chose to.

12. If, for a short time, each man was willing to examine his own peculiar actions, search out their true motives to discover their concatenation, he would remain convinced that the sentiment he has of his natural free agency, is a chimera that must speedily be destroyed by experience.” D’Holbach

13. Objection “My actions cannot all be determined since I sometimes deliberate about what to do!”

14. What about deliberation? D’Holbach: “…when the brain is simultaneously assailed by causes equally strong that move it in opposite directions, …it is neither capable to will nor to act; it waits until one of the two causes has obtained sufficient force to overpower the other; to determine its will; to attract it in such a manner that it may prevail over the efforts of the other cause.”

15. Why did you choose that? • Sometimes we considered several options and chose a certain one • What we chose is due to our strongest motive at the time of choice

16. Why our choices are completely determined • I chose to X because my strongest desire is to X. • My strongest desire is to X because of things beyond my control. • Therefore, I chose to X because of things beyond my control.

17. Your life story: Written long ago “Man’s life is a line that nature commands him to describe upon the surface of the earth, without his ever being able to serve from it, even for an instant. …he is unceasingly modified by causes, whether visible or concealed, over which he has no control, which necessarily regulate his mode of existence, give hue to his way of thinking, and determine his manner of acting.” D’Holbach birth

18. The anatomy of a robot Action Stimulus Capacities: Memory, emotions, intelligence Program: Responsive, adaptive, random element Material: Internal, external

19. Programmers I do not act freely if my action is wholly determined by events beyond my control. (Robot Principle) Genius inventor All your actions Program Blind forces of nature

20. Determinism = No freedom • I do not act freely if my action is wholly determined by events beyond my control. (Robot Principle) • My action is wholly determined by events beyond my control. (Determinism) • Therefore, I do not act freely.

21. Determinism = no freedom • Incompatibilism: • Determinism is incompatible with freedom • Compatibilism • Determinism is compatible with freedom

22. The big picture Is everything we do determined? Yes No Is determinism compatible with freedom? Is indeterminism compatible with freedom? Yes No Yes No =Freedom =No freedom Compatibilism Incompatibilism =Freedom =No freedom

23. Responsibility • Kinds of responsibility • Causal responsibility • Explains how the event occurred • Legal responsibility • Held liable for legal action according to the law • Moral responsibility • ?

24. Sammi the simple • IQ of 20 • Made to sit for postgraduate exam • Fails

25. Sammi the simple Sammi, your childhood friend, has an IQ of 20. One day, through no fault of hers, Sammi was made to sit for a postgraduate quantum physics exam. She failed it. To what extent is Sammi responsible for failing the exam?

26. William the weak • Born with physical condition • Physically unable to lift more than 100kg • 300kg statue fell on generator • 100 people will be hurt unless he lifts it • Fails and 100 hurt

27. Principle of non-responsibility A person is not morally responsible for some occurrence when it is not within her ability to prevent it.

28. Edward the evil • Born with unknown condition • At age 21, he would be unable to choose any action except what is evil • At 21, he was alone with a child and killed her for fun

29. Principle of non-responsibility A person is not morally responsible for some occurrence when it is not within her ability to prevent it.

30. Compare

31. Compare We are not morally responsible for how we live since we cannot avoid what we do.

32. How different are we from Alicia? If we are merely robots, are we treating each other appropriately?

33. Why some robots are free Am I responsible for how I live?

34. Why we are completely programmed • I chose to X because my strongest desire is to X. • My strongest desire is to X because of things beyond my control. • Therefore, I chose to X because of things beyond my control.

35. Determinism = No freedom • My action is wholly determined by events beyond my control. (Determinism) • If my action is wholly determined by events beyond my control, then I do not act freely. (Robot Principle) • Therefore, I do not act freely.

36. The mysterious cat Every Friday at 3am, this cat appears just outside the SIM library. Then it disappears at 3.42am. There is no explanation for its appearance and disappearance.

37. Indeterminism • An event occurs indeterministically iff it has no cause • The preceding state of things and the laws of nature do not sufficiently explain the current state of things

38. Is indeterminism possible? How could an event occur without a cause??? State of the world at T1 State of the world at T2 State of the world at T2

39. Deterministic world Indeterministic world • Indeterministic events seem entirely random • If your action is indeterministic, it seems you likewise lack control over it

40. Freedom is impossible Action Determined Not determined Fixed by external causes Random Beyond our control

41. A misunderstanding? “the problem is not a real one…and is due to nothing but a confusion about the meanings of words” Stace

42. “There are no humans” • “Humans” = “5-legged animals” • Mistaken definition

43. “Definitions can be wrong” • “Common usage is the criterion for deciding whether a definition is correct or not.” • “Freedom” is a label for a kind of ability

44. Jones: I once went without food for a week. Smith: Did you do that of your own free will? Jones: No. I did it because I was lost in a desert and could find no food.

45. Gandhi: I once fasted for a week. Smith: Did you do that of your own free will? Gandhi: Yes, I did it because I wanted to compel the British Government to give India its independence.

46. Criterion of free action? • The person chose to perform the action • The person could have chosen otherwise if she had wanted to

47. Judge: Did you sign this confession of your own free will? Prisoner:No. I signed it because the police beat me up. Jury: The prisoner says he signed the confession because he was beaten, and not of his own free will. Philosopher: It makes no difference. In both cases, his signing is causally determined by events beyond his control. So he cannot have signed it freely.

48. Moral of the stories: ‘Freedom is compatible with determinism’

49. God and evil God Evil Evil Good Good Good Evil

50. The problem of moral evil “By giving us free will, it is only natural that this kind of evil exists. One cannot claim that in a perfect world, God should have prevented it – that would constitute the removal of our free will.”