What Are The Main Features Of Hard Dete
What are the main features of hard determinism?
According to The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, hard determinism is the theory that ‘every event or state of affairs is brought about by antecedent events in accordance with universal causal laws.’ This theory of determinism is therefore supportive of human behaviour being predictable, that free will is an illusion and that moral responsibility is redundant.
One key feature of hard determinism is the view that free will is an illusion. To elaborate, this means that the idea that we are at liberty to make our own choices is actually false and that all actions are due to antecedent causes that we may or may not be aware of. 17th century philosopher John Locke holds the view that free will is an illusion and demonstrates it through his locked room analogy. The locked room analogy illustrates a man who is making a choice to either stay or leave the room. The man decides to stay, but unknown to him the door was locked anyway, so although the thought he was choosing to stay in the room, realistically, he had no choice and was determined by a cause which he was ignorant to, so the free will that he thought he had was actually an illusion. Locke relates this to human behaviour in general to suggest that all moral actions are in fact determined. Additionally, 18th century philosopher, Baron D’Holbach explained choice through desire, explaining that when we think that we are making a conscious choice, we are actually just moving towards our strongest desire. In his book, ‘The System of Nature’, Holbach expressed his views on hard determinism, stating that humans ‘cannot swerve from’ the path set out for them whilst comparing humans to machines which cannot choose to act differently that the way in which they are programmed to act. In his book Holbach produced the fly analogy. By using this analogy of a fly which lands on the back of a carriage under the impression that he is directing its course but unknowingly to the
According to The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, hard determinism is the theory that ‘every event or state of affairs is brought about by antecedent events in accordance with universal causal laws.’ This theory of determinism is therefore supportive of human behaviour being predictable, that free will is an illusion and that moral responsibility is redundant.
One key feature of hard determinism is the view that free will is an illusion. To elaborate, this means that the idea that we are at liberty to make our own choices is actually false and that all actions are due to antecedent causes that we may or may not be aware of. 17th century philosopher John Locke holds the view that free will is an illusion and demonstrates it through his locked room analogy. The locked room analogy illustrates a man who is making a choice to either stay or leave the room. The man decides to stay, but unknown to him the door was locked anyway, so although the thought he was choosing to stay in the room, realistically, he had no choice and was determined by a cause which he was ignorant to, so the free will that he thought he had was actually an illusion. Locke relates this to human behaviour in general to suggest that all moral actions are in fact determined. Additionally, 18th century philosopher, Baron D’Holbach explained choice through desire, explaining that when we think that we are making a conscious choice, we are actually just moving towards our strongest desire. In his book, ‘The System of Nature’, Holbach expressed his views on hard determinism, stating that humans ‘cannot swerve from’ the path set out for them whilst comparing humans to machines which cannot choose to act differently that the way in which they are programmed to act. In his book Holbach produced the fly analogy. By using this analogy of a fly which lands on the back of a carriage under the impression that he is directing its course but unknowingly to the