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

T4 Determinism and free will

time food was ready for the dogs to eat. This was called a neutral stimulus. The dogs began to associate the bell with food. Pavlov eventually rang the bell but did not produce food; however, the dogs still produced saliva. Therefore, the dogs had been conditioned to produce the unconditioned reflex of saliva to the neutral stimulus of the bell. Pavlov defined conditioning as the subconscious repeating of behaviour to certain environmental conditions, i.e. the dogs subconsciously salivated to the environmental conditions of a bell ringing. John Watson (1878–1958) furthered Pavlov’s work by attempting to show the same conditioning in humans. He took an eight-month-old baby who had previously shown no fear of rats. The baby’s neutral stimulus was a loud sound just behind his head, which made him have the unconditioned reflex of crying. Every time the rat appeared, Watson made the loud sound and the baby cried. Eventually, a rat was presented to the baby but made no noise; however, the baby still cried. Therefore, the baby had been conditioned to produce the unconditioned reflex of crying to the sight of a rat. In fact, Watson found that the baby had generalised his fear to all furry objects. Following Pavlov and Watson, the behaviourist school of thought in psychology postulated that all human reactions are just conditioned responses associated with the environmental conditions of one’s upbringing. Therefore, all of a person’s actions are determined by their own unique environmental conditioning. For example, a young child may enjoy walking and splashing through puddles. However, a parent may chastise the child for doing this. The child may well cry as a response to this and more importantly develop an association between puddles and sadness/crying. Therefore, in later life as the person approaches a puddle they will walk around it. They may believe this is a free choice but in fact it is just a determined conditioned response. This is because the person is just subconsciously repeating taught conditioned behaviour. Behaviourist psychologist B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) supported this theory. Skinner proposed a further development of classical conditioning, called operant conditioning. Here a person is conditioned to always repeat behaviour that is rewarded, but not repeat behaviour that is punished. AO1 Activity Work in groups of three. Firstly, divide the three types of hard determinism argument (philosophical, scientific and psychological) between the three of you – one each. Each person summarises their type of determinism in no more than 50 words. Each person then presents their summary to the other two people in their group. Soft determinism Soft determinism is an attempt to combine the opposing theories of hard determinism and libertarianism (the idea that we can be totally free in our moral decision making). The theory argues that people are determined but nonetheless still free. This is because of the understanding of ‘free’. To a soft determinist, being free is about being able to do what one wants to do, without external coercion or interference from anyone else. It accepts that human actions have causes (background, genetics, education, etc.) but they are free if actions are caused by our choices rather than external forces. Soft determinists are sometimes called compatibilists as they see free will and determinism working together. Indeed, freedom requires determinism in order to make sense of things, otherwise everything would be random with no explanation. Freedom involves the empowerment to act and thus control the desired effect. A. J. Ayer states this

Key quote Man has no will, intention, self-determinism or personal responsibility. (Skinner)

4.7 Explain how conditioning determines your actions.

DRAFT

Ivan Pavlov

Specification content Soft determinism: Thomas Hobbes (internal and external causes).

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