WJEC/Eduqas RS for A2/Yr2: Religion and Ethics (DRAFT)

WJEC / Eduqas Religious Studies for A Level Year 2 and A2 Religion and Ethics

This section covers AO1 content and skills

B: Concepts of determinism Hard determinism

Specification content Hard determinism: philosophical (John Locke – free will is an illusion, man in bedroom illustration).

Determinism is very different from fatalism. Fatalism is the theory that all events are destined to occur no matter what we choose. Whereas determinism looks to natural laws and cause-effect relations, fatalism looks to the wills of gods, divine foreknowledge or mystic forces to guarantee those events will happen. The idea of determinism is firmly grounded in the principle of causality. The world around us appears to be a ‘closed’ phenomenon. We can observe causality and the interaction of phenomena, and it appears that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature. We therefore look for an explanation for everything, including the way in which we choose to act. Any decision made has a cause. If this is the case then hard determinism, a term coined by William James, takes the no-nonsense line that everything that occurs in the universe has a sufficient explanation through causes and conditions. This is what we call the law of cause and effect. Our actions, the ones we actually do, are the only ones that we can do. Therefore, human beings are not free to act; free will is no more than an illusion. It is illogical to speak of ‘free’ choice or ‘free’ will because it is clear from observing the interaction of phenomena that everything is determined by causality. Human beings have preconditioned, programmed choices over which they have no control. Therefore, there is no need to praise good deeds, for example, because the person who did them had no alternative. Neither can a person be blamed for a bad deed. Philosophical determinism (John Locke – free will is an illusion) John Locke (1632–1704) was an English philosopher who is widely regarded as one of the leading enlightenment thinkers. He developed a philosophical determinism theory based on universal causation . This is the belief that all human actions and choices have a past cause leading to the conclusion that all events that happen are determined by an unbreakable chain of past causes. Therefore, if this view is correct, then the future must logically be as fixed and unchangeable as the past. The future could result only from the past or present and no future is possible other than that dictated by the past and present. Locke coined the phrase: ‘free will is just an illusion’. This is because people who believe they have free will think they do because they can pause and reflect before making a choice. However, Locke believed that all such thoughts can be accounted for by the person’s ignorance of universal causation. Indeed, Locke argued, most people do not have the intelligence to see that there are no choices at all to be made. In his book An Essay Concerning Human Understanding , Locke developed views on the nature of freedom of action and freedom of will. He distinguished between voluntary and involuntary actions. For action A to be voluntary, it must be caused by a volition to do A. For an action to be involuntary, it must be an action performed without a volition (this includes actions preceded by the right kind of volition but not caused by the volition).

Key quotes Hard determinists say that our actions are caused in a way that makes us not as free as we might have thought, so that responsibility, if it implies free will, is an illusion. (Lacey) It follows … about states of the brain as effects, as correlates and as causes, that on every occasion when we decide or choose, we can only decide or choose as in fact we do. (Honderich) We ought then to regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its antecedent state and the cause of the state that is to follow. An intelligence knowing, at a given instant of time, all things of which the universe consists, would be able to comprehend the actions of the largest bodies of the world and those of the lightest atoms in one single formula, provided his intellect were sufficiently powerful… nothing would be uncertain… (Laplace)

DRAFT

Key term Universal causation: belief that all human actions and choices have a past cause, leading to the conclusion that all events that happen are determined by an unbreakable chain of past causes

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