Deck 5: Free Will and Determinism

Question 1

According to d'Holbach, all the mental and moral attributes that people think are evidence for an immaterial soul are in fact

A) purely intellectual.
B) purely physical and natural.
C) ethereal.
D) undetermined.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

When philosophers talk about free will, they are talking about the power of

A) political systems.
B) socio-economic mobility.
C) living a good life.
D) self-determination.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

According to d'Holbach, people always act according to

A) free choices.
B) dictates of the soul.
C) ) necessary natural laws.
D) undetermined will.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

According to Taylor, hard determinism conflicts with

A) the findings of science.
B) scientific determinism.
C) the fact of deliberation and indeterminism.
D) the fact of deliberation and our sense that some actions are up to us.

Question 5

Soft determinism entails that

A) the thesis of determinism is true.
B) there are no restraints on human behavior.
C) the thesis of determinism is false.
D) we are free to choose our desires.

Question 6

For the soft determinist, to say that you could have done otherwise is to say that you would have done otherwise if your desires

A) were always the same.
B) were completely under your control.
C) had been different.
D) played no role in your decisions.

Question 7

Hard determinism entails that

A) determinism and free will are compatible.
B) determinism and indeterminism are compatible.
C) determinism and free will are incompatible.
D) we cannot know whether determinism is true.

Question 8

According to Sartre, what existentialists have in common is that they think that

A) essence precedes existence.
B) objectivity must be a starting point.
C) existence is a myth.
D) existence precedes essence.

Question 9

According to Sartre, there is at least one being in whom existence precedes essence, and this being is

A) God.
B) man.
C) primitive man.
D) future man.

Question 10

According to Sartre, the first principle of existentialism is that

A) God is dead.
B) man is all-powerful.
C) man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.
D) man is nothing.

Question 11

According to Sartre, if God does not exist,

A) anything is permissible.
B) moral values must come from nature.
C) moral values still exist.
D) man does not exist.

Question 12

Libertarianism entails

A) The thesis of determinism is false.
B) The thesis of indeterminism is false.
C) Our actions have no causes whatsoever.
D) Free will is an illusion.

Question 13

According to James, indeterminism allows that the world has

A) no ambiguous possibilities.
B) a fixed future.
C) ambiguous possibilities.
D) no shadow of turning.

Question 14

According to Stace, free acts must be

A) those whose immediate causes are psychological states in the agent.
B) uncaused.
C) caused by forces outside the agent.
D) those whose immediate causes are the acts of other agents.

Question 15

It is widely agreed that fatalism and determinism are different in that

A) fate can be avoided whereas determinism cannot.
B) fate is compatible with free will whereas determinism is not.
C) only fatalism claims that our actions make no difference.
D) only determinism claims that our actions don't cause anything.

Question 16

Rowe says that the problem with Lockean freedom is that, with this kind of freedom,

A) you have the power to do what you will.
B) you cannot act at all.
C) you have no power over your will.
D) doing what you will is impossible.

Question 17

Van Inwagen's case against compatibilism rests in part on the fact that we cannot render a law of nature

A) intelligible.
B) understandable.
C) coherent.
D) false.

Question 18

The doctrine that every event is determined or necessitated by preceding events and the laws of nature is known as

A) libertarianism.
B) hard determinism.
C) determinism.
D) compatibilism.

Question 19

The challenge of reconciling determinism with our intuitions or ideas about personal freedom is known as the

A) problem of free will.
B) determinism problem.
C) libertarian dilemma.
D) problem of indeterminism.

Question 20

The movies Gattaca and A Clockwork Orange dramatize the fear of

A) a pleasurable future.
B) a predetermined existence.
C) an open future.
D) violence.

Question 21

If our actions are not free in any important sense, it is difficult to see how we could be

A) determined by outside forces.
B) the subject of accurate predictions.
C) held morally responsible for what we do.
D) human.

Question 22

Many who reject the notion of free will think that punishing people for crimes makes no sense. They think that instead of punishing criminals, we should

A) leave them to their own devices.
B) ostracize them.
C) terminate them.
D) try to modify their behavior.

Question 23

The view that no one has free will is called

A) determination.
B) determinism.
C) soft libertarianism.
D) hard determinism.

Question 24

Compatibilism entails that determinism is true, determinism and free will are compatible, and

A) we sometimes act freely.
B) free will is a myth.
C) no one acts freely.
D) soft determinism is false.

Question 25

The view that some actions are free because they are ultimately caused, or controlled, by the person is called

A) libertarianism.
B) soft compatibilism.
C) ultimate freedom.
D) indetermination.

Question 26

The view that what will be will be, and no human actions can change it, is known as

A) determinism.
B) soft determinism.
C) futurism.
D) fatalism.

Question 27

The branch of science that provides a counterexample to the notion that every event has a cause is known as

A) quantum physics.
B) quantum computing.
C) relativity theory.
D) chaos theory.

Question 28

_______ wrote The Will to Believe and The Varieties of Religious Experience.

A) Jean-Paul Sartre
B) Richard Taylor
C) W. T. Stace
D) William James

Question 29

On the subject of free will, John Locke was a

A) hard determinist.
B) compatibilist.
C) libertarian.
D) fatalist.

Question 30

Incompatibilists believe that compatibilist freedom is

A) real freedom.
B) a plausible hypothesis.
C) undetermined.
D) not real freedom.

Question 31

Libertarians contend that real freedom is not just the power to act if we will to act, but

A) power over the will itself.
B) power to act according to our desires.
C) power to act in concert with determinism.
D) the nonexistence of any deterministic forces.

Question 32

William Rowe argues that freedom that is worth the name must include power to

A) will.
B) act randomly.
C) do if we will.
D) desire what we want.

Question 33

The Consequence Argument is supposed to establish

A) incompatibilism.
B) free will.
C) libertarianism.
D) soft determinism.

Question 34

Many compatibilists think the Consequence Argument fails because

A) it does not define the "past" in a satisfactory way.
B) its logic is faulty.
C) the laws of nature are indeed up to us to some extent.
D) it uses a faulty interpretation of "could do otherwise."

Question 35

The view that a free action is caused by an agent (person) is called

A) Taylor's freedom.
B) fatalism.
C) the will to believe.
D) agent causation.

Question 36

D'Holbach says that man's life is a course that nature compels him to take without deviation.

Question 37

D'Holbach's view is that science precludes the notion of free will.

Question 38

D'Holbach asserts that when we deliberate about a choice, our decision is free and undetermined.

Question 39

Taylor thinks that soft determinism is true to our moral intuitions.

Question 40

Taylor rejects libertarianism.

Question 41

Taylor believes that simple determinism allows us to have a plausible form of free will.

Question 42

Taylor says that man is condemned to be free.

Question 43

Sartre thinks that man's future is predestined.

Question 44

Sartre says forlornness comes from the realization that God does not exist, and we must face all the consequences of this.

Question 45

Sartre advocates withdrawing from human endeavors.

Question 46

James says that determinism professes that those parts of the universe already laid down absolutely decree what the other parts shall be.

Question 47

James believes that only determinism allows for the possibility of free will.

Question 48

Stace thinks that determinism is compatible with moral responsibility.

Question 49

Stace believes that determinism is consistent with free will.

Question 50

Stace accepts compatibilism.

Question 51

Van Inwagen is a hard determinist.

Question 52

Van Inwagen rejects compatibilism.

Question 53

Rowe says that Lockean freedom exists solely at the level of action.

Question 54

Rowe says that progress in the philosophical study of free will is not possible.

Question 55

William James is a fatalist.

Question 56

If the thesis of determinism is true, then fatalism is also true.

Question 57

Hard determinists and Libertarians agree that free will is incompatible with determinism.

Question 58

All Libertarians accept agent causation.

Question 59

What is the problem of free will? What are the two commonsense ideas that seem to conflict and thus give rise to the free will problem?

Question 60

On James's account, how is indeterminism (randomness) supposed to make free will possible? Do you agree that it does? How can randomness make someone free to act as he or she sees fit?

Question 61

According to James, what are the unpleasant implications of determinism? Do you agree that the implications are as menacing as James thinks they are? Explain.

Question 62

How does Stace use his examination of common language usage to argue for compatibilism? What is Stace's view of punishment? Do you agree with him? Explain.

Question 63

Consider the theory about free will known as libertarianism. It is based on the premises that determinism is false and that determinism and free will are incompatible. Do you accept these premises? Why or why not?

Question 64

Imagine someone who always acts according to his or her desires-but the desires have been secretly created by a mad scientist using advanced technology. Can he or she really be said to act freely? Would Locke say that he or she acts freely? Explain.

Question 65

Do you agree with James that the question of free will versus determinism is unprovable and largely a matter of sentiment based on personality type? In that case, are we determined to choose one view or the other?

Question 66

D'Holbach points out that without the doctrine of free will, the notion of just punishment crumbles: that religion could not justify God's sending people to hell for their sins, and the Law could not justify its system of punishments without the doctrine. Do you agree with d'Holbach?

Question 67

What is d'Holbach's argument that we do not have free will? Do you think the argument is sound? Explain. Why does d'Holbach maintain that choice does not prove the free agency of man?

Question 68

Critics of compatibilist freedom say that merely being able to act according to your desires without constraints is not real freedom if your desires are determined for you in the first place. Do you agree with this criticism? Explain.

Question 69

In your own words, explain the idea of agent causation. How is this supposed to help solve the problem of free will? Do you think agent causation is plausible? Why or why not?

Question 70

If scientists proved once and for all that determinism is true, how do you think most people would react? Do you think most people would continue to hold each other responsible? What does that show, if anything, about our intuitive ideas about freedom?