Soft Determinism

Words: 1261
Pages: 6
Open Document
Drug addiction is a condition typically viewed by society as one of choice. However, emerging studies show that addiction may be beyond the control of an addict and instead due to outside forces or even chance. These contrasting views demonstrate the difference of opinion on the existence of causality and the role of free will in human decisions and actions. The idea of causality forms the basic principle of determinism, which states every event is caused and then acts in accordance with the physical laws of nature. There are varying degrees of rigidity with which determinism is argued, from hard determinism to soft determinism and all the way to the contradictory indeterminism. Using the example of addiction these views can be compared and …show more content…
This stance accepts the determinist principle of causality, but it does not limit the causes to be strictly of a physical nature. Soft determinism allows for a degree of predictability when it comes to human actions instead of the certainty of hard determinism or the randomness of indeterminism. The soft determinist argues that human character can be a cause of an event and, therefore, human actions can be predicted with relative certainty if enough information about the person is known. From the standpoint of soft determinism drug addiction is more complicated than the strict physical cause given by the hard determinist. The soft determinist would argue that drug addiction could stem from some kind of physical dependence, but it could also be a result of some kind of character deficiency. This argument seems to put some responsibility for human actions on the person themselves, instead of the other two, which remove this responsibility from people’s …show more content…
Unlike hard determinism and indeterminism soft determinism does allow a degree of responsibility for one’s actions. In soft determinism one is free to reason out an action and their reasoning stems from their character, which is within one’s control. This implies that humans can control their actions, yet soft determinism also agrees with the principle of causality like hard determinism. The soft determinist makes causality and free will compatible by arguing that both physical conditions and our character determines our actions. This implies that for drug addiction there are some physical causes, but there is also some responsibility on the addict himself or herself. This appears to nicely fix the issue of free will, however it is not a perfect solution. The problem of freedom for hard determinism and indeterminism comes from their strict stance on the notion of causality and while soft determinism appears to resolve this problem it creates the issue of the relationship between our free will and physical causes in determining our
Show More

Related Documents: Soft Determinism

English: Free will and Soft Determinism Essay

one is morally responsible’ The idea of soft determinism entails the fact our actions are to some extent controlled by external forces but we are still held accountable for our choices. I agree with this and believe that we are not free and that our actions are pre-determined by the mechanistic world we live in where everything has a purpose; every small action has an equal sized reaction, which, I believe we are morally responsible for. Soft determinism I had mentioned earlier is also referred…

Words 1390 - Pages 6

Essay on Free Will and Determinism

Free Will and Determinism University of Toronto Professor J. Brunning Philosophy-105 2012-2013 Free Will and Determinism Freedom, something that when people asks, everyone can give you different definitions. According to the dictionary, the meaning of freedom is the state of being free or at liberty rather than in a confinement. To me, my own definition of freedom means not to be restraint from other human beings, but to other people, it could be something that are completely different…

Words 1720 - Pages 7

Leibniz Free Will Research Paper

Is free will an illusion? I ask myself this question when examining Leibniz’s theory of determinism, free will and God. In this paper, I will examine Leibniz's theory and determine if his theory is without flaws. According to Leibniz’s Monadology, Leibniz establishes a metaphysical system that explains the nature of the material world. Leibniz does not believe that the material world can be explained using mathematics and other scientific principles.Instead of choosing to submit to mathematics and…

Words 730 - Pages 3

Free Will Research Paper

will it is not determined because they are multiple possibilities. Determinism views that all events have a determinate cause meaning that one cause will produce one effect. Each event must have a cause if the theory determinism is accepted. Hard determinism is the view that no action is free. Soft determinism/compatible rejects freedom but still accept the concept of determinism. This theory suggests that free will and determinism is than compatible. In other words sometimes you have free will and…

Words 328 - Pages 2

Essay on Critically Assess the View That We Are Not Responsible for Our Evil Actions

for their actions, evil or not, because their actions are predetermined. However, this is a ridiculous stance to take as humans are free to make moral choices, meaning they are entirely responsible for their evil actions. Many argue that hard determinism is the best approach to take when assessing this hypothesis as once you abandon the outdated notion of freedom; you can create a much…

Words 1249 - Pages 5

All The Light We Cannot See Analysis

Nature vs. nurture, psychology as a science, deception to research participants. Among countless psychology debates, determinism vs. free will is a polarizing one. (HOOK: listing) Saul Mcleod’s article in Simply Psychology titled “Freewill and Determinism” describes these 2 camps, but also mentions the very apparent grey area. He describes it as soft determinism: a position in which “people do have a choice, but their behavior is always subject to some form of biological or environmental pressure”…

Words 509 - Pages 3

Free will and determinism Essay

make choices. The one side of this issue which claims that free will doesn’t exist is known as determinism. Determinism is the theory that everything in the universe is governed by casual laws. It asserts that whatever happens at one specific moment is the outcome of something that happened at a pervious moment. All our actions are thereafter fixed as a matter of natural law. The roots of determinism can be explained with the theory of sufficient reason, i.e. everything in principle can be explained…

Words 1833 - Pages 8

Essay about Freewill and Determinism

Freewill and Determinism What is determinism? Most people agree that people are morally responsible only for the actions they carry out freely and deliberately. Determinism states that there are laws of nature which govern everything which happens, every choice we make was determined by the situation before it and so implies infinite regress. Freedom of choice is just an illusion and so personal responsibility is meaningless, as are blame and punishment. This makes it difficult to make any sense…

Words 1324 - Pages 6

Essay on Free Will

past events. Examples of these are determinism, libertarianism, and fatalism. Determinism as a whole is defined as believing that things that happen to you is directly affected by what happened to you in the past. There are different types of determinism and it can be split into two types; hard and soft. Hard determinism states that free will does not exist and that everything that happens in your life is predetermined by events in your past. Soft determinism says that you can both have free will…

Words 1131 - Pages 5

Essay on Is Technology Deterministic

technology. According to Merritt and Marx (1994), technological determinism is simply the view that new techniques set the circumstances for social and cultural change. Further, taking the above discussion into consideration this particular paper provides an insight into the fact that how changes in technology has brought about significant and constructive social and cultural changes Technological Determinism Technological determinism is basically a theory which deals with diminution and it presupposes…

Words 2476 - Pages 10