Philosophy: Free Will and Determinism Guide

• Study guide for Spring Final Exam - 2025

Matching Terms

• Libertarianism posits the existence of free will, which is incompatible with determinism.
• Libertarianism raises the question of accountability if free will is true.
• Determinism asserts that future events are knowable with certainty if all conditions are known; actions are predetermined.
• Compatibilism attempts to reconcile free will with determinism, suggesting that free will can exist within a deterministic framework.
• Hard determinism states absolutely all events, including human actions, are predetermined.
• Indeterminism suggests that not all events are determined, allowing for the capacity of free will.
• Some actions, according to indeterminism, occur without determinism, leaving room for choice.

Multiple Choice

• Descartes used the senses as a reason to doubt many things because they can deceive the mind.
• Descartes did not believe the body and mind were together, trusting the mind over the body.
• Dualism is the idea that the mind and body are two different and separate realms.
• Skepticism claims that knowledge comes through questioning and doubt.
• How do we know things are certain? It is being free from doubt.
• Chalmers suggests that even with a complete understanding of the brain, the hard problem of consciousness remains unexplained.
• The Hard and Easy Problems of Consciousness explain why and how physical processes give rise to subjective experience.
• A possible solution Chalmers offers for explaining the hard problem is panpsychism.
• Nagel's thoughts on what it's like to be a bat reflects on subjective experience.
• You can know everything about bats, but you'll never know what it's like to BE one.
• MLK's arguments in Letter from a Birmingham Jail responded to white hate, criticized them, and discussed the urgency of change while in prison.
• Nonviolence brings attention to problems.
• John Rawls advocates for civil disobedience and liberal society, where everyone can participate and have a say.
• The Veil of Ignorance thought experiment states none of us know who we are.
• Candice Delmas on Un-Civil Disobedience sees civil disobedience as necessary to address injustice and revolution to completely change the system.
• Both civil disobedience and revolution seek to address injustice.
• Morality depends on the extent that its targeted and proportionate.
• Kantian Ethic, also known as Deontology, seeks the right or wrong action "actions."
• Kantian Ethics does not focus on the consequences of actions but morality of duty in the principal.
• Utilitarianism focuses on the greatest good for the greatest number of people and weighs the consequences.
• Tom Daugherty on Affirmative Consent means there are no assumptions in affirmative consent for sex.
• More arguments from free will raises the question of the accountability of people if free will exists.
• Susan Wolf suggests is that every life has meaning, and if someone feels like they're living a meaningful life, then they are.
• Myth of Sisyphus refers to rolling a boulder up a hill.
• Schopenhauer's Philosophy states the world is always in a strain and is chaotic and unpredictable.
• Schopenhauer was pessimistic about life, believed life included suffering and did not think religion made you wise.

Four Sentence Argument

• Possible essay questions given: Ethicist on an AI development team for autonomous vehicles choosing between utilitarian and deontological values to handle unavoidable harm situations, as well as, ones position in the free-will debate

Short Answer Question

• Possible essay questions given: Explain John Rawls' Original Position and Veil of Ignorance thought experiment, focusing on how these concepts support his theory of justice as fairness in creating a liberal society.