“Determination by Reasons”

“Determination by Reasons”

• Boran BerčićDepartment of PhilosophyUniversity of Rijeka

Hypnosis

Mind control, conditioning,brain washing

Mind control, conditioning,brain washing

Susan Wolf Freedom Within Reason 1990

• “My desire for a pastry is clearly a result of the smells wafting from the bakery as I walk past; my desire for a new sweater can be traced to a magazine advertisement that caught my eye. A passionate speech makes me want to write my congressman; a letter from a friend makes me want to give her a call.” (p.11)

Susan Wolf Freedom Within Reason 1990

• “Zero-degree weather makes me turn up the heat; an empty refrigerator makes me go to the store. An upcoming tenure desicion makes an assistant professor write articles for publication; a child’s illnes makes a father leave work early to take his daughter to the doctor.” (p.12)

Reasons

• Zero-degree weather, empty refrigerator, upcoming tenure desicion, child’s illnes, … are resons.

“Determination by Reason”

• “Perhaps it simply had not occurred to the proponent of autonomy that one explanation for why an agent might not be able to do otherwise is that it is so obviously rational to do what she plans to do and the agent is too rational to ignore that fact.” (p.70)

“Determination by Reason”

• Causes determine, but do the reasons determine? Can we be determined by the reasons, by something that is obviously rational to do?

• Even if we can be determined by reasons, it is not a kind of determination that would undermine our free will and moral responsibility.

Wolf’s Assymetry Thesis is based on equivocation

• George Washington could not have lied.• A kleptomaniac could not have refrained from

stealing.• But the senses of “could not have” are different. In

the first case it is a strong moral character, in the second case it is a psychological compulsion. The first case does not undermine FW and MR, the second one does!

Compulsive Truth Telling

• If we replace George Washington who could not have lied with a guy with a compulsion for telling the truth, the Assymetry Thesis fails. We have a symmetry again.

• A compulsion for truth telling undermines FW and MR, not the strenght of the moral character.

Different Kinds of Determinism

• Physical, chemical, biological, genetical, psychological, sociological, economical, moral, rational, …

• The Question: What kind of Determinism really threats free will and moral responsibility?

Genetic determinism

Concordance for Criminality

Identical (monozygotic) twins - 77%

Fraternal (duozygotic) twins – 12%

(13 pairs of identical twins and 17 pairs of fraternal twins)

Aaaaa, what about 23%?

What exactly happens?

• (1) What is meant by “criminal behavior”? Tax paying avoidance, bribe, driving through red light, violent killing, bank robbery, drug dealing, … ?

• (2) How mechanism exactly operates? Neurotransmitters, serotonine, dopamine,..? Rage? The lack of self control?

Mechanical / IntentionalReactive attitudes / Detached attitudes

Intentional / Physical / Design

Data

• We fix Data’s electronics.

• We fix people’s brain chemistry.

Mechanical / Intentional

• (1) Broken mechanism does not have FW and MR (because it is broken).

• (2) Well functioning mechanism does have FW and MR (because it functions well).

• (3) No mechanism has FW and MR, broken or not (because it is a mechanism).

Dr StrangeloveIntentional Action Became

Mechanical

Dr Strangelove

Migration - Biological Phenomen

Migration - Biological Phenomen

Migration - Biological Phenomen

Migration - Biological Phenomen

• “Animals are driven by instincts not by rational deliberation. Therefore, they do not have FW and MR.”

• Not quite true.

Migration – Economical Phenomen

Migration – Economical Phenomen

Migration – Economical Phenomen

Ernst Georg Ravenstein(1834-1913)

Laws of Migration1. Every migration flow generates a return or countermigration.

2. The majority of migrants move a short distance.

3. Migrants who move longer distances tend to choose big-city destinations

4. Urban residents are less migratory than inhabitants of rural areas.

5. Families are less likely to make international moves than young adults.

6. Migration stage by stage

7. Urban Rural difference

8. Migration and Technology

9. Economic condition

Economical Migrations

• Migration Law: If there are no jobs in region A and if there are well payed jobs in region B, and if region B is accessible from the region A, people will migrate from region A to region B.

Were they determined by economical reasons?

Were they free?Croats to Germany 1970’Dalmatians to “New World” 1900’ (Peronospora (Downy Mildew - Plasmopara viticola)) Austrian import limits for vine)Irishmen to USA (Potato Famine)Mexicans to USAYU “Selo – Grad” (Industrijalizacija, Elektrifikacija)

Are emigrants determined by laws of migrations?

• In a sense they are determined by laws of migrations, but not in a sense that would undermine their freedom of will and moral responsibility.

Prescription/DescriptionCoercion/Necessity

• Schlick, Ayer, etc: Laws (of psychology) do not force us to do what we do, they just describe what we do (by our own free will).

The Criterion(First Approximation)

• If determination operates through our deliberation and our intentional states then it does not undermine our free will and our moral responsibility.

• Or; “determination by reasons” does not undermine our FW and MR.

Perfectly Rational Automaton

• Perfectly rational automaton (perfectly rational mechanism) - Is it a contradiction? An oxymoron?

• No! Even if reasons and causes in fact (in extension) perfectly concide, they still differ in principle (in intension).

• “Perfection! “

• “Everything is just as it ought to be!”

• Even if the way things are and the way things ought to be in fact coincide, we can conceptually distinguish the two.

The Consequence Argument

(1) If determinism is true, then the conjunction of P* and L entails P.

(2) It is not possible that J have raised his hand at T and P be true.

(3) If (2) is true, then if J could have raised his hand at T, J could have rendered P false.

(4) If J could have rendered the conjunction of P* and L false, and if the conjunction of P* and L entails P, then J could have rendered the conjunction of P* and L false.

(5) If J could have rendered the conjunction of P* and L false, then J could have rendered L false.

(6) J could not have rendered L false.

(7) If determinism is true, J could not have raised his hand at T.

Why a Judge could not have raised his hand?

• Because of the factors of 10000 years ago?

• Because he is a brutal sadist?

• Because he is a Republican?

• Because after a lot of reflection he came to the conclusion that capital punishment is right? (Maybe he red Igor Primoratz’s book?)

What happened 10 000 years ago is irrelevant!

• In w a judge can not raise his hand.

• In w* a judge can not raise his hand.

• Where w is 10 000 000 000 years old, and w* is 5 minutes old.

• A judge is equally free or unfree in both worlds.

Explanatory Irrelevance

• A necessary condition need not be explanatory relevant. A judge could not have raised his hand without oxygen in the atmosphere, if temperature was 7000 C, if fundamental physical forces were different, without the legal system he could not be a judge, …

• It is true that the conjunction of P* and L entails P, but only few things from this conjunction might be relevant for the explanation of why the judge did not raise his hand.

Explanatory Irrelevance

• Even if the Consequence Argument is valid (questionable), its rhetorical effects are misleading: they conflate necessary conditions of E with explanatory relevant conditions of E.