Can be held responsible for our actions, if we are not free?
- Created by: mrahman
- Created on: 17-05-17 14:06
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- If we are not free, can we be held responsible for our actions?
- Against responsibility
- 'ought implies can' Kant and other moral philosophers have argued there is a relationship between freedom and responsibility
- if freedom is disproven then moral responsibility should go
- is there any justification for holding people accountable?
- John Calvin argued that everything has been predestined by God. Good acts only stem from God's grace which humans can't resist.
- If a thief isn't prevented from stealing by God's grace can he held responsible since God's grace only comes from God's action
- The law recognises diminished responsibility
- Darrow used this line of reasoning to reduce Leopold and Loeb's sentence to life in prison and argue that they were not responsible
- it was Nietzschean philosophy and genetics that compelled them to commit murder. Why just in one case?
- Darrow used this line of reasoning to reduce Leopold and Loeb's sentence to life in prison and argue that they were not responsible
- 'ought implies can' Kant and other moral philosophers have argued there is a relationship between freedom and responsibility
- For responsibility
- Hume, freedom is the power of acting or not acting. So internal causation doesn't necessarily exclude responsibility.
- People can held accountable if external causes doesn't determine their action
- Richard Dawkins argues that we have a lust to be nice due to our selfish genes wanting to ensure survival
- If we are designed to be moral, then why should we not hold responsible for those who are not moral?
- if our actions are not caused then they must be random so then can we hold people responsible for random actions?
- No, Kant arggued human actions are determined by reason which is part of the noumonal world which can avoid the dictates of the phenomenal world so people must be held responsible
- Hume, freedom is the power of acting or not acting. So internal causation doesn't necessarily exclude responsibility.
- Against responsibility
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