This essay will look at the contribution of the free will/determinism debate and the idiographic/nomothetic approach and also how they apply to contemporary psychology. Free will is known to be connected to moral responsibility. Many ancient thinkers tried to encourage society that humans have control over their decisions and the actions that we perform depend on us. It is believed that actions are not pre-determined and aren’t caused by natural determinism (InformationPhilosopher, [no date]). Free will is “The ability or discretion to choose; free choice: chose to remain behind of my own free will” (The Free Dictionary, 2014). This means that people have the complete free choice to do as they please and make decisions. However, having complete free will would imply that people would make random and unpredictable decisions, something that would be very hard to argue. Determinism is “The philosophical doctrine that every state of affairs, including every human event, act, and decision is the inevitable consequence of antecedent states of affairs” (The Free Dictionary, 2014). There are different types of determinism; genetic, environmental, psychic, hard and soft. Genetic determinism looks at how behaviour is determined down to our internal and biological systems. Environmental determinism believes that all behaviours are learned and they can only be determined by the environment. Skinner believed that free will was just an illusion. Psychic determinism looks at how behaviour can be pre-determined by events from early childhood. Hard determinism suggests that social forces outside our control shape everything we do. It was believed that no action can be free if it is determined to occur. Soft determinism is the view that our actio... ... middle of paper ... ...impact in today’s society. In relation to the idiographic and nomothetic debate, this is also very important in society. Works Cited Chalabi, M. (2013). The Sun says 1,200 people have been killed by 'mental patients' – is it true?. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/society/reality-check/2013/oct/07/sun-people-killed-mental-health-true. Last accessed 8th Jan 2014. The Department of Psychology. (2007). About the Department. Available: http://www.isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k3007&pageid=icb.page19708&pageContentId=icb.pagecontent44003&view=view.do&viewParam_name=allport.html. Last accessed 7th Jan 2014. The Free Dictionary. (2014). Determinism. Available: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/determinism. Last accessed 9th Jan 2014. The Free Dictionary. (2014). free will. Available: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/free+will. Last accessed 9th Jan 2014.
Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D. T., & Wegner, D. M. (2010). Psychology. (2nd ed., p. 600). New York: Worth Pub.
The view of free will has been heavily debated in the field of philosophy. Whether humans possess free will or rather life is determined. With the aid of James Rachels ' article, The Debate over Free Will, it is clearly revealed that human lives are "both determined and free at the same time" (p.482, Rachels), thus, in line with the ideas of compatibilist responses. Human 's actions are based on certain situations that are causally determined by unexpected events, forced occurrence, and certain cases that causes one to outweigh the laws of cause and effect. The article also showcases instances where free will does exist. When human actions are being based on one 's emotions of the situation, desire, and simply that humans are creatures that are created to have intellectual reasoning. I argue, that Rachels’ article, provides helpful evidence on compatibilists responses that demonstrate free will and determinism actions come into play with each other.
However, I have taken a more compatibilist approach towards the argument of free will, determinism, and moral responsibility. I think that determinism lays the foundation for an individual to make a decision by exposing a multitude of possibilities. But, it takes free will to make the decision which in turn makes us partially responsible for our actions since we had various options at hand. I suspect that the concept that free will and determinism can coexist and oftentimes work hand in hand. Since we are predisposed to a particular body, with different DNA, and a unique mindset, I can agree that we are predetermined to think and act a certain way because of genetics and how we were raised. However, I also believe that this is not the only force at hand whenever people make decisions. As we grow and experience the world, we are faced with situations that have us question and rearrange our perspectives and the way we think. This is where determinism comes into play. For example, a child who was taught to eat meat during their early life learns about how the meat industry functions in an Environmental Science class in high school. As a result, they decided to be a vegetarian. This causal event serves as an influence that instilled a new idea into the student. However, it takes free will to ultimately make the decision to convert because it goes against what was determined for the individual. It was their autonomous choice to convert since there were two options at hand: to change their eating habits or to remain the
The simplest description of free will, as conceived by such philosophers as David Hume, is simply that free will is, “the ability to choose an action to satisfy a desire” (Hoefer). However, modern philosophers have mostly rejected this definition because it is known that nonhuman animals also act on their wants and needs but lack the intelligence to consider their actions as free choices. A more complex assessment of free will, better differentiating between humans and animals, is that the ability of humans to choose actions flows from the relationship between their animal desires and intellects. This means that people's actions are free when they have intelligently determined the best decision to make in any situation, even if their choices conflict with what they truly want, or their base animal desires. By conquering their basic instincts to make rational, informed decisions, humans have exercised free will, which animals cannot do
Imagine starting your day and not having a clue of what to do, but you begin to list the different options and routes you can take to eventually get from point A to point B. In choosing from that list, there coins the term “free will”. Free will is our ability to make decisions not caused by external factors or any other impediments that can stop us to do so. Being part of the human species, we would like to believe that we have “freedom from causation” because it is part of our human nature to believe that we are independent entities and our thoughts are produced from inside of us, on our own. At the other end of the spectrum, there is determinism. Determinism explains that all of our actions are already determined by certain external causes
As some believe that we humans have free will, they believe that we have the freedom of choice and the freedom of action. But, if all of our actions have a reason behind them, or if there is a causal explanation behind each of our choices, it is difficult to say that we actually have the freedom of will. For this reason, determinism challenges free will, as the determinist believes that all of our decisions are governed by some form of natural law, and that all of our behaviors are explainable by this law.
Waiten,W., (2007) Seventh Edition Psychology Themes and Variations. University of Nevada, Las Vegas: Thomson Wadsworth.
Gall, S. B., Beins, B., & Feldman, A. (2001). The gale encyclopedia of psychology. (2nd ed., pp. 271-273). Detroit, MI: Gale Group.
The problem of free will and determinism is a mystery about what human beings are able to do. The best way to describe it is to think of the alternatives taken into consideration when someone is deciding what to do, as being parts of various “alternative features” (Van-Inwagen). Robert Kane argues for a new version of libertarianism with an indeterminist element. He believes that deeper freedom is not an illusion. Derk Pereboom takes an agnostic approach about causal determinism and sees himself as a hard incompatibilist. I will argue against Kane and for Pereboom, because I believe that Kane struggles to present an argument that is compatible with the latest scientific views of the world.
Free will proponents believe that we have total control over our actions, and that the actions we chose, not external causes, determine the outcome. Proponents of determinism deny free will, believing instead that every action we take is determined by preexisting causes. (text, pg. 144) Fatalism and predestination are extreme forms of determinism that believe that God or The Universe have already determined what will happen, and the any action we take, or choice we think we make ...
A philosophical problem within psychology is the combating ideas of free will versus determinism. The idea of free will says that we are able to choose our actions and that not all behavior is determined already. Likewise, by believing in free will one’s behavior is left to our consciousness, therefore, leaving us to make natural undetermined choices. However, the problem is our will is a product of past events, experiences, and heredity.Determinism, on the other hand, advocates that our behaviors are not within our control but based on the environment or other external causes from our will. Those supporting determinism assume this belief to measure and predict human behavior. Although determinism tries to predict behavior, it can never really
Freedom, or the concept of free will seems to be an elusive theory, yet many of us believe in it implicitly. On the opposite end of the spectrum of philosophical theories regarding freedom is determinism, which poses a direct threat to human free will. If outside forces of which I have no control over influence everything I do throughout my life, I cannot say I am a free agent and the author of my own actions. Since I have neither the power to change the laws of nature, nor to change the past, I am unable to attribute freedom of choice to myself. However, understanding the meaning of free will is necessary in order to decide whether or not it exists (Orloff, 2002).
Boyd, D., Wood, E.G., Wood, S.E. (2014, 2011, 2008). Mastering the world of psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. 128-129, 329-330, 335-340. Print.
One of the most widely discussed topics in the field of philosophy is the concept of determinism. Determinism is “the thesis that only one continuation of the state of things at a given moment is consistent with the laws of nature” (Inwagen). In other words, people do not act of our own accord but rather by the hand of a greater force in a predetermined series of events. The theory of determinism opposes that of free will, which is the belief that we have the choice to do whatever we want to do. This theory has been mulled over and over again by philosophers who believe that the laws of nature highly suggest the existence of only one pathway of events, a path that is strictly based on an exact chain of cause and effect that can be traced back
Edited by Raymond J. Corsini. Encyclopedia of Psychology, Second Edition, Volume 1. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc.