B) Concepts of determinism

Hard determinism

• AKA incompatibilism: says that a belief in determinism is incompatible with a belief in free will
• Philosophical determinism: John Locke developed his theory based on the theory of past causes, i.e. universal causation (SL- Aquinas)
• Believed all events are determined by an unbreakable chain of past causes that cannot be escaped from
• If we accept this reasoning, we can conclude that the future must logically be as fixed and unchangeable as the past
• Locke said, "free will is just an illusion"- any thoughts of free will were in fact the result of ignorance of past causes
• He used the analogy of the man in a locked room to explain his theory
• Later, philosopher William James supported Locke's theory, arguing "Any other future set of outcomes than the one fixed from eternity is impossible"
• Biological/ scientific determinism: Darwin's evolution theory (every living organism must have a unique genetic formula)
• Humanity is not free but instead determined by their own DNA in 3 ways; physical appearance, physical and mental capacity, and behaviour
• Any effort to change one's behavioural patterns is useless because it is out of our conscious control
• Daniel Dennett called this idea 'genetic fixity'- the scientific principle that our parents' DNA inevitably determines our characteristics (from conception)
• People can be reduced to no more than genetic robots (the theory is sometimes called 'puppet determinism')
• Psychological determinism: associated with the behaviourist school of thought in psychology. Ivan Pavlov- reflex/ classical conditioning
• Pavlov's dogs experiment- Pavlov understood that dogs had an 'unconditioned reflex' to produce saliva…