What is freedom?

Essay deadline

• 15 Apr (Mon, 9am)• Email the essay to me

The road aheadWeek Topic Format10 (Tues, 9 Apr) • A defense of freedom

• What is the mind?Lecture

10 (Fri, 12 Apr) • What is the mind?• What is thinking?

Lecture

11 (Fri, 19 Apr) • Mind & Thought Tutorial12 (Tue, 23 Apr) • What am I? Lecture12 (Fri, 26 Apr) • Review Lecture13 (Fri, 3 May) • Exam preparation Tutorial

What am I?Am I free?

What is a thinking creature?

Am I immortal?

What makes me me?

Twilight Zone: “The Lonely”

1. Did Corry come to treat Alicia as more than a robot?

2. Why does Allenby think it would help to shoot Alicia?

Self-examination• Think of something

you intentionally did.–Why did you do

it? –What is the

ultimate explanation for why you did it?

How different are we from Alicia?

1. Every event that occurs has a cause

2. My action is an event3. Therefore, my action

has a causeAre we also robots, made of a slightly different material?

History of your choice

You chose to X

You wanted to X

You wanted

to Y

You wanted

to Z

Infinite regress?

External cause?

Why our choices are not up to us

1. I chose to X because my strongest desire is to X.

2. My strongest desire is to X because of things beyond my control.

3. Therefore, I chose to X because of things beyond my control.

Fatalism & determinismKey difference: Significance of personal

choiceI am fated to eat the poison pill iff

(i) I would eat the poison pill(ii) I am unable to avoid eating the poison pill no

matter what I choose to do

• Determinists can reject (ii). • In a deterministic world, you would be able

to avoid eating the poison pill if you chose to.

Programmers

Genius inventor

Blind forces of nature

Program All your actions

I do not act freely if my action is wholly determined by events beyond my control. (Robot Principle)

Determinism = No freedom1. I do not act freely if my action

is wholly determined by events beyond my control. (Robot Principle)

2. My action is wholly determined by events beyond my control. (Determinism)

3. Therefore, I do not act freely.

The big pictureIs everything we do determined?

Is determinism compatible with freedom?

Is indeterminism compatible with freedom?

Yes No

Yes No Yes No

Compatibilism Incompatibilism

=Freedom =No freedom

=Freedom =No freedom

• Indeterministic events seem entirely random

• If your action is indeterministic, it seems you likewise lack control over it

Deterministic world Indeterministic world

Freedom is impossibleAction

Determined

Not determined

Fixed by external causes

Random

Beyond our control

Principle of non-responsibility

A person is not morally responsible for some occurrence when it is not within her ability to prevent it.

CompareName Condition Stimulus Outcome Responsible

?Sammi Inability

to pass exam

Made to sit for exam

Fails exam

William Inability to lift statue

Has to lift statue to prevent harm

Fails to prevent harm

Edward Inability to choose anything but evil

Finds himself alone with child

Does evil

Compare

Name Condition Stimulus Outcome Responsible?

You

We are not morally responsible for how we live since we cannot avoid what we do.

Libertarianfreedom

“If we are responsible, and if what I have been trying to say is true, then we have a prerogative which some would attribute only to God: each of us, when we act, is a prime power unmoved.”

-Roderick Chisholm

How would you explain ‘Red’ to someone who is

colour-blind?

Red?

“The colour you would see if you cut yourself.”

“Light reflected along a certain wavelength hitting your retina.”

“What colour scientists call red.”

Red• Must all concepts be

fully explainable in terms of other concepts?

• Must all concepts be reducible to some more fundamental concept?

• Primitive concepts

The conditional analysis

Adam chose to rebel

God programmed Adam to most desire to rebel

Adam could have chosen to obey if he had

most desired to obey

Rebel Obey

True but irrelevant?In asking whether Adam was free to obey or rebel:• We are not asking if he was

able to obey/rebel if the reality was different

• We want to know if he was able to obey/rebel given reality as it was

The ability to choose otherwise• Agent Black• Jones freely shot Smith• But Jones could not have

chosen otherwise– Agent Black would have

prevented it• Freedom doesn’t

require the ability to choose otherwise (?)

2 considerationsThe correct account of freedom should:Be more robust

than conditional analysis of freedom

Not require the ability to choose otherwise

Show freedom is possible

Freedom seems impossible

We are free and therefore morally

responsible

The Argument from Deliberation

Facts about deliberation

• When you deliberate about whether to sleep or study, you believe:

• that you can sleep or study• It is within your control whether you choose to sleep or study

Sleep Study

Libertarian scenarioThe Judge is offered a bribe. He deliberates about accepting it.

Reject bribe Accept bribe

Because it is too

low

Because it is

unjust

Because it is useful

Because it is just

Beware!Reasons = causes

Reason = JustificationWhy you did something

Causes = ExplanationHow you did something

2 kinds of questions① How did the action

come about?What caused the action?

② Why did the action come about?What was the reason for the

action?

The hit

“I hit him because I aimed my hand carefully to ensure contact with his left cheek.”

“I hit him because I wish to teach him a lesson”

Reason Cause

Causation

Cause

Effect

Agent

Intention

Causing

Content of intention?

Analysis of action“Why did the

Judge cause an intention to accept the

bribe?”

To buy his 10th car

What’s the reason?

The Judge

What’s the cause?

“What is the cause of the

Judge’s intention to accept the

bribe?”

Question“Why did the Judge cause an

intention to accept the bribe in order to buy his 10th car.”

No further reason

What’s the reason?

None

What’s the cause?

Event

“The Judge causing an intention to accept the bribe in order to buy his 10th car.”

Uncaused Not random: This event is itself an exercise of power

What is free control?

“I freely control Y” I Y

What controls “my free

control of Y”?

??

If nothing controls it, then it is random

If something controls it, then it is

determined

A parallel

“Chairs exist”

Do existing chairs exist?

It is impossible for an existing chair to

not exist

Are blue chairs blue?

Are chairs chairs?

The error“I freely

control Y” I Y

What controls “my free

control of Y”?

??

It is impossible for something to control my free

control of Y

The error“I freely

control Y” I Y??

Fundamental concept: Cannot be reduced to other concepts

The idea of being able to choose otherwise, if there are other options.

Crux of the matter

Is it possible that we are ultimate originators of

intentions?

The confused question“Why did the Judge cause an

intention to accept the bribe in order to buy his 10th car.”

No further reason

What’s the reason?

None

What’s the cause?

2 views of action

Circumstances Agent Intention

Circumstances Agent Intention

“Incline without necessitating”

Conclusion1. Deliberation indicates we have

the power to choose.2. We therefore have the power to

choose, unless we have reason to think otherwise.

3. We have no reason to think otherwise

Freedom of choice is possible4. Therefore, we have the power to

choose = freedom of the will.

The freedom landscape

The action is determined

The action is not determined

Action

Determinism is compatible

with freedom

Determinism is incompatible with freedom

Random Libertarian

freedom

Stace, Frankfurt, etc

D’Holbach, etc

‘We have mysterious powers’“One can hardly affirm such a theory of agency with complete comfort, however, and wholly without embarrassment, for the conception of men and their powers which is involved in it is strange indeed, if not positively mysterious.”

‘We are Prime Movers’“If we are responsible, and if what I have been trying to say is true, then we have a prerogative which some would attribute only to God: each of us, when we act, is a prime power unmoved.

In doing what we do, we cause certain events to happen, and nothing – or no one – causes those events to happen.”

Worldview• What is reality like?

• How do humans fit within it?

Reality is the sum of impersonal causes and effects

Humans are personal causes, and bring about personal effects

QuestionsHow can natural processes bring about creatures that can transcend natural laws?

We can’t be merely physical entities since we aren’t fully governed by physical laws. What then are we?

Will you survive your bodily death?

“Will you survive your death?”1.Yes. My memory will live on in the

minds of my family and friends.2. No, death is by definition the end of

my existence.

What does the question mean?

NOT these

Will you survive your bodily death?

Reports of the afterlife

Ascent of the

Blessed

Hieronymus Bosch (1450-

1516)

Depictions of old

“When I realized I was dead, which took several minutes, a great warmth of love engulfed me, and I felt arms wrap around me even though I had no physical form; colors were electric, smells fantastic…

The experience of death has been the most real and physical experience of my life, and the world here felt cold and heavy and unreal for sometime afterward.”

Recent testimonies

“I was confronted by a red light, exceedingly bright, and also very painful even when I turned away from it. I was aware that this light was responsible for the government of the universe.”

- A. J. Ayer (Daily Telegraph, 1988)

‘What I saw when I was dead’

Core elements of Near-Death Experiences

(Long and Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife.)1.Out-of-body experience2.Intense and generally positive

emotions3.Passing through a tunnel4.Encountering a mystical or

brilliant light5.Having a life review

Special considerations• If there is an afterlife, then

everyone near death would experience it.– If something is real, then everyone would

experience it.

• We don’t know enough about our brain to conclude NDEs aren’t hallucinations.

What am I?

“As a matter of fact, when one comes to know how greatly they differ, we understand much better the reasons which go to prove that our soul is in its nature entirely independent of body, and in consequence that it is not liable to die with it.

And then, inasmuch as we observe no other causes capable of destroying it, we are naturally inclined to judge that it is immortal.”

Brain = Mind?• Brain

– Tissue– Neural networks

• Mind– Thoughts, emotions,

conscious experiences

Body• “a chunk of matter

through which he makes a difference to the material world, and through which he acquires beliefs about that world.”

(Swinburne, Evolution of the Soul)

Soul Non-physical

substance that is capable of mental activity

The SoulSubstance dualism • Human beings are

made up of 2 distinct substances

(i.e. body + soul)

What am I?• Substance dualism

– Physical + Non-Physical substances

• Substance monism– Only Physical substances (Physicalism)– Only Non-Physical substances (Idealism)

An intriguing comparison• Physical

– Tables, bodies, trees, etc– Length, mass, texture, etc

• Mental– Thoughts, pain, etc– Length? Mass? Texture?

Argument from Possibility

Consider• “X = Y”• Test of identity:

– X is 1m long, but Y is 5m long.– X = Y?– If X has property P, but Y lacks property P,

then X is not the same thing as Y.

Diversity of Discernibles

The Matrix

MatrixAppearance & Reality• It is logically possible

that what we perceive is not real.

• It is true that what we perceive is not real (?)

Distinctions

Logically possible

True

Is it possible that you are now dreaming?

Key distinctions• Awake & asleep• Conscious & not conscious

– Being conscious means having awareness, even if the awareness if not of reality.

Consider• Is it possible that you are now

dreaming?• If you are now dreaming, then

everything you are conscious of could be part of the dream.– There is a bottle– You have a body– You are consciousPossible to be false?

Possible to be false?

Possible to be false?

ConsiderI am conscious of a bottle, but there might not be one?

I am conscious of having a body, but I might not have one? I am conscious but I

might not conscious?

Possibilities in this dream

Scenario 1

It is impossible that I am conscious, yet I don’t exist.

Scenario 2My body

existsMy body doesn’t

existI exist I exist

It is possible that you exist while your body does not exist.

You have the property of possibly existing while your body does not exist.

It is not possible that your body exists while your body does not exist.

Your body does not have the property of possibly existing while your body does not exist.

Findings

BODY I ?

Property of “possibly

existing while your body does

not exist”

Lacks property of

“possibly existing while

your body does not exist”

Diversity of DiscerniblesIf X has property P, but Y lacks property P, then X is not the same thing as Y.

“Property P”

Argument from Possibility1) If I have the property P, but my

body lacks the property P, then I am not the same thing as my body.

2) I have the property P, but my body lacks the property P.

3) Therefore, I am not the same thing as my body.

Diversity of Discernible

s

Dream example

Conclusion

Descartes’ Meditations

“So I shall suppose that some malicious, powerful, cunning demon has done all he can to deceive me…I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colours, shapes, sounds and all external things are merely dreams that the demon has contrived as traps for my judgment. I shall consider myself as having no hands or eyes, or flesh, or blood or senses, but as having falsely believed that I had all these things.”

It is logically possible that an evil demon is now deceiving you into thinking you have a body.

It is logically impossible that an evil demon is now deceiving you into thinking you exist.

It is logically possible that you exist while your body does not exist.

“Well, then, what am I? A thing that thinks.

What is that? A thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wants, refuses, and also imagines and senses.”

I am a soul

“As a matter of fact, when one comes to know how greatly they differ, we understand much better the reasons which go to prove that our soul is in its nature entirely independent of body, and in consequence that it is not liable to die with it.

And then, inasmuch as we observe no other causes capable of destroying it, we are naturally inclined to judge that it is immortal.”

Proof of immortality• What is destruction?

– Disintegration of something into its constituent parts

• But the soul is a simple thing– Unlike physical things,

souls have no parts– Thus, cannot disintegrate

The soul is indestructible

?

"You should not be surprised. I could not prove that God could not annihilate the soul, but only that it is by nature entirely distinct from the body, and consequently it is not bound by nature to die with it."

We have no reason to think the soul will cease to exist with the

body.

We will die.

Our bodies will disintegrate.

We will cease to exist.

We are souls. Will we continue

to exist?