C) The implications of determinism/ predestination

The implications of determinism on moral responsibility

• Hard determinism means a person has absolutely no free will, therefore they have absolutely no control over the moral choices they make and hence cannot be blamed for them
• The value in blaming moral agents for immoral acts: hard determinism questions whether human values like 'stealing is wrong' are useful concepts. The value for blaming people for 'immoral acts' is questionable if they have absolutely no control over their moral actions.
• E.g. recently an Italian man had his murder sentence reduced by 1 year because he had MAOA gene (determining cause of violence)
• The usefulness of normative ethics: the purpose of normative ethics is to act as a moral guide. However, if hard determinism is right, normative ethics become superfluous
• E.g. DCT presumes people have a free will choice to follow God's commands. But if they don't, DCT becomes pointless
• Also act utilitarianism: Bentham presumes people have the free will to select the course of action that fulfils the principle of utility. If not, AU becomes pointless too
• Therefore, if hard determinism is right that all human decisions are a result of determinism, all normative ethics are of no practical use
• Classical soft determinism states the only aspects of free will that a person has is if their predetermined actions are not forcibly stopped BUT it accepts…