Phil Quiz 7

Hard determinists maintain that the real difference between human actions and physical events is that our actions... are caused by immaterial soul stuff. have all sorts of invisible causes that happen in our brains. don't obey the laws of physics. are caused by alien mind control technology.

have all sorts of invisible causes that happen in our brains.

Hales denies that your reasons for acting are always the result of previous decisions you made because.... they are sometimes the result of confused thinking. you let your parents make most of your decisions for you. this would lead to an infinite regress. no one ever in fact makes a real decision.

they are sometimes the result of confused thinking.

In the textbook, Samuel Johnson is quoted as saying... "if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." "'freedom' is just another word for nothing left to lose." "all theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience is for it." "those who speak constantly of 'defending freedom' mean only preserving that which is convenient and demanding of little sacrifice, rational reflection, or effort."

"all theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience is for it."

Soft determinism is another name for... incompatibilism. compatibilism. libertarianism. nothing left to lose.

Compatibilism

Hard determinists think that free will and causal determinism are... both illusions. incompatible. compatible. none of the above.

Incompatible

Libertarianism is true only if... free will is an illusion. some of our actions are not causally determined. no event is ever causally determined. all events are random.

some of our actions are not causally determined.

According to one of these conceptions, if an action was freely willed by its agent, then.... it was performed with complete and accurate knowledge of its consequences. the action was in accord with the categorical imperative. it was performed without governmental interference. the agent could have performed a different action instead.

the agent could have performed a different action instead.

Aristotle draws a distinction between involuntary and non-voluntary actions due to ignorance. An action due to ignorance is involuntary, he says, when... the agent does not feel pain or regret about what she has done. the agent feels pain or regret about what she has done. the action is morally wrong. the agent is an OU student.

the agent feels pain or regret about what she has done.

According to the regress of reasons argument,... you always act according to your greatest desire. you are not ultimately responsible for your reasons and their relative weights in decision-making. you are not ultimately responsible for your actions. All of the above.

you always act according to your greatest desire.

Compatibilism is the thesis that... random actions can be free actions. you are free just in case your actions are voluntary and result from your beliefs, desires, and intentions. truth is compatible with error. right is compatible with wrong.

you are free just in case your actions are voluntary and result from your beliefs, desires, and intentions

A reason to reject global causal determinism, mentioned by Hales, is that... it means we have no free will. we cannot in practice predict future events with a high degree of accuracy. it is inconsistent with what we know about psychological processes in the brain. some quantum events, like radioactive decay, are random.

It means we have no free will

In the video "Determinism vs Free Will: Crash Course Philosophy #24," the concept of fate is illustrated with the story of.... Oedipus Ivanka Trump Saul Goodman Thanos

Oedipus

Aristotle denies that acts caused by anger or strong desire are involuntary. Which of the following is one of his reasons for saying this? The claim would imply that we cannot legally prosecute people for performing crimes caused by anger. Actions caused by anger are always the result of rational deliberation. The claim would require us to give up the view that non-human animals and very young human children are capable of voluntary action, which seems counterintuitive. All actions caused by anger or strong desire are morally wrong and should be punished.

The claim would imply that we cannot legally prosecute people for performing crimes caused by anger.

Compatibilism is true only if.... an action CANNOT be both physically caused and free at the same time. some of our actions do not have entirely physical causes. free will is an illusion. an action can be both physically caused and free at the same time.

an action CANNOT be both physically caused and free at the same time.

According to Hales, your reasons for acting are... are often determined by outside forces and influences. spontaneous and come from nowhere. ultimately unknowable. planted in your mind by Justin Bieber's pet monkey.

are often determined by outside forces and influences.

Aristotle distinguishes between ____________ ignorance. philosophical and non-philosophical particular and general discursive and non-discursive vegetative and non-vegetative

particular and general

In the video, Hank suggests that the best argument in favor of libertarian free will is that... certain medications can enable us to perform completely random actions. morality requires that we be genuinely free from the laws of cause and effect. it just subjectively feels like we're free. the laws of physics are constantly changing.

it just subjectively feels like we're free.

According to the philosopher D'Holbach, humans beings are... just part of the physical world and bound by its laws. easily misled, lazy, and self-serving. no smarter than pigeons. animated by an immaterial soul that makes us free.

just part of the physical world and bound by its laws.

Two distinct conceptions of free will are discussed by Hales in the readings. They are... futility and randomness. cosmological and ontological. utilitarianism and deontology. libertarianism and compatibilism.

libertarianism and compatibilism.

Causal determinism in physics and philosophy is the thesis that.... there is no such thing as free will. God has a predestined plan for us. there is no such thing as voluntary action. past events in conjunction with the laws of physics entail every truth about the future.

past events in conjunction with the laws of physics entail every truth about the future.

D'Holbach describes hard determinism as the view that human beings and their actions are like... the light traveling from a long dead star. cogs in a machine. the spring in a toy duck. leaves blowing in the wind.

the spring in a toy duck.

The Divine Foreknowledge argument against free will assumes that... free will couldn't have evolved through Natural Selection. God infallibly knows everything that you will do, every action you will perform, and everything that will happen to you. God always causes you to act whether for good or bad. God can predict everything but human actions.

God infallibly knows everything that you will do, every action you will perform, and everything that will happen to you.

One reason that Hales thinks that randomness at the quantum level won't save free will is that... at the macrolevel the universe behaves as though it were causally deterministic. there is probably no such thing. random events at the quantum level would enable us to travel backwards in time. randomness at the quantum level is just too rare to make much difference.

at the macrolevel the universe behaves as though it were causally deterministic.

in this passage, Laplace is describing the idea that the universe is... a place where random events are constantly occuring. magical and full of wonder. causally deterministic. a simulation in a vast super-computer.

casually deterministic

According to the video, libertarians distinguish between... voluntary actions and mere habits. canine causation and feline causation. determinism and overdeterminism. event causation and agent causation.

event causation and agent causation.

nother reason that Hales thinks that randomness (in general) won't save free will is that... God knows about all future random events. if an action occurs randomly, then its happening is an accident, and not a rational, willed action. if an action occurs randomly, then it could still be causally determined. if an action occurs randomly, then it must have supernatural causes. But there are no supernatural causes.

if an action occurs randomly, then its happening is an accident, and not a rational, willed action.

According to Aristotle, an action is involuntary if it is.... the result of ignorance forcibly compelled caused by strong emotion or desire Either (a) or (b)

Either (a) or (b)

Aristotle thinks that even the virtuous person may sometimes perform actions due to particular ignorance. True False

True

Aristotle would characterize being ordered to do something by your boss as a form of external compulsion. True False

True