Free will, B. F. Skinner "Freedom and the Science of Behavior," Richard Taylor "Deliberation and Freedom"

determinism

indeterminism

compatibilism

incompatibilism

libertarianism (indeterminism + incompatibilism) = we have free will

soft determinism (determinism + compatibilism) = we have free will

hard determinism (determinism + incompatibilism) = we don't have free will

B. F. Skinner "Freedom and the Science of Behavior"

Frazier's assumption/question

What would you do if you found yourself in possession of an effective science of behavior?

Castle tries to reject the assumption that a technology of behavior is possible.

Proving Determinism

-the feeling of freedom
-Castle's example (the matchbook)

-why does Castle give up?

Castle's Switch to Compatibilism

"Certainly a man in jail isn't free in the way I am now?"

-what are the determiners of human behavior?
-negative reinforcement
-positive reinforcement

Castle wants to preserve the idea of freedom by appealing to a contrast between coercion and freedom. How does Frazier undermine Castle's appeal to this contrast?

Negative Reinforcement vs. Positive Reinforcement

-why does Skinner regard the latter as superior?

The Development of Positive Reinforcement

-according to Frazier, what are the two principles that Christ discovered?

Conclusions

"restraint is only one sort of control, and absence of restraint isn't freedom."

"The question is: Can men live in freedom and peace? And the answer is: Yes, if we build a social structure which will satisfy the needs of everyone and in which everyone will want to observe the supporting code."

Richard Taylor "Deliberation and Freedom"

Determinism

"in the case of everything that exists, there are antecedent conditions, known or unknown, given which that thing could not be other than what it is. That is an exact statement of the metaphysical thesis of determinism."

Determinism and Human Behaviour

-each of us is part of the world; we are made of the same basic stuff that everything else is made of.

-it's easy to be a determinist about purely physiological changes and processes

-but what about actions that we appear to choose?

"There is no moral blame nor merit in anyone who cannot help what he does. It matters not whether the explanation for his behavior is found within him or without, whether it is expressed in terms of ordinary physical causes or allegedly "mental" ones, or whether the causes be proximate or remote."

-in short, my action is free and responsible only if, I could have done otherwise.

Determinism and Morals

-while it is moral implications, free will is not a topic within ethics. Rather, free will is a topic within metaphysics.

-the datum: 1. deliberation; 2 things are sometimes up to me.

Deliberation

"Deliberation is an activity, or at least a kind of experience, that cannot be defined, or even described, without metaphors."

-assumptions: 1. I can only deliberate about my own behaviour;
2. I can only deliberate about the future;
3. I can't deliberate if I already know what I'm going to do;
4. I can't deliberate unless I believe that what I am going to do is up to me.

"It Is Up to Me"

-if the movement of my finger is up to me, then its movement is under my direct control.

-the conjunction/disjunction distinction.

-not a matter of the logically impossible.

Freedom

"To say that it is, in a given instance, up to me what I do is to say that I am in that instance free with respect to what I then do."

-obstacles and constraints undermine my freedom.

-but does there absence of obstacles and constraints secure my freedom.

Soft Determinism

"The three claims of soft determinism are (1) the thesis that determinism is true, and that accordingly all human behavior, voluntary and other, like the behavior of all other things, arises from the antecedent conditions, given which no other behavior is possible-in short that all human behavior is caused and determined; (2) that voluntary behavior is nonetheless free to the extent that it is not externally constrained or impeded; and (3) that in the absence of such obstacles and constraints, the causes of voluntary behavior are certain states, events or conditions within the agent himself; namely his own acts of will or volitions, choices, decisions, desires, and so on."

The Refutation of This

Could I have chosen otherwise or not?

See quote pg 415, bottom left: Here the determinist…"

Simple Indeterminism

"let us suppose that it (simple indeterminism) is true, and that some of my bodily motions-namely those that I regard as my free acts-are not caused at all or, if caused by my own inner states, that these are not caused."

Determinism and Simple Indeterminism as Theories

-both appear irreconcilable with the two items of data set out at the beginning.

The Theory of Agency

"When I believe that I have done something, I do believe that it was I who caused it to be done, I who made something happen, and not merely something within me, such as one of my subjective states, which is not identical with myself."

assumptions of this conception of activity

1. the self-moving being (a being that is more than the sum of its physical parts);
2. "an extraordinary conception of causation (perhaps better described as "performance." (pg 417 bottom right, 418 top left) -this conception avoids the problems of determinism and simple indeterminism

"One can hardly affirm such a theory of agency with complete comfort, however, and wholly without embarrassment, for the conception of agents and their powers which is involved in it is strange and mysterious."