Philosophy - Freedom, Responsibility, and Human Action - Essay Example

Philosophy - Freedom, Responsibility, and Human Action Table of Contents I. Introduction ……………………………………………………………. 3 II. Researcher’s Personal View: Intuition’s Role on Human Action and Moral Responsibility …………………………….. 3 III. Does Recent Empirical Evidences of Major Causes of Human Action and Moral Intuitions Undermines the Role of Intuition in Philosophical Discourse on Human Freedom and Responsibility? …………………………………………………………. 5 IV. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………… 6 References ……………………………………………………………………… 7 Introduction According to Burtt (1953), the word intuition is referring to a mental process that enables a thinker to gain new knowledge. Even though intuition can be used as a tool in gaining new knowledge, intuition is not always considered as a reliable source of information based on experimental philosophy due to lack of scientific evidences that verifies the truth behind the new information. After reading ‘The Illusion of Conscious Will’ written by Wegner (2002) and ‘Does Consciousness Cause Behavior?’ as edited by Pockett, Banks, and Gallagher (2006), the researcher will discuss his/her own personal views with regards to the role of intuition on human action and moral responsibility. Eventually, the researcher will discuss whether or not the recent empirical evidences related to the major causes of human action or the variable status of certain moral intuitions undermines the role of intuition in philosophical discourse on human freedom and responsibility. Regardless of whether the researcher agrees or disagree with the claims that these recent empirical evidences weakens the role of intuition in philosophical point-of-view on human freedom and responsibility, the researcher will provide examples or possible alternatives as a way of defending the researcher’s answer to the question. Researcher’s Personal View: Intuition’s Role on Human Action and Moral Responsibility Even though most of the human actions are controlled by environmental and genetic factors, intuition also has a role in controlling some of our actions. Basically, intuition serves as our inner higher guidance. Even before we perform an action, intuition tells us to whether or not to proceed with our intended action. Based on a person’s final judgment or decision, his or her moral responsibility as a human being will be greatly affected by his own actions. For example: A man who needs a large sum of money for his child’s heath care needs and surgery bill may end up thinking about robbing a bank or stealing something that costs a large sum of money from a stranger. Even before the man decides on whether to push through with his plan, the man will have to undergo a mental balancing between the benefit and consequences as well as the moral issues behind his intended action. At this point, intuition would normally hold the man from doing something that is morally unacceptable. Another example will be a student who is in danger of failing a subject at the end of the semester. In order to avoid failing the subject, the student may end up either choosing between copying his or her seatmate’s paper or simply put in extra effort in doing his homework and studying more in order to enable him to get a higher grade during the final exam. In line with this scenario, the student may also think about seeking special teaching-learning guidance from his or her professor to enable him to get a better idea and understanding about the subject matter. Based on the second example, the student’s intuition may restrict him from doing a morally unacceptable action. Instead, his intuition enabled him to develop optional ways wherein he could get higher marks on homework and quizzes during the last quarter of the semester. Does Recent Empirical Evidences of Major Causes of Human Action and Moral Intuitions Undermines the Role of Intuition in Philosophical Discourse on Human Freedom and Responsibility? There are a lot of recent empirical evidences that could explain the causes of human actions. Most of these empirical evidences can be explained with the use of different studies related to the human anatomy and physiology. Pockett, Banks, & Gallagher (2006: p. 237) published a philosophical statement stating that ‘it is not possible for an idea to move a muscle since ideas does not have any form of mass and there is no solid object that could connect ideas to the muscle fiber or the neuron of a muscle’. The researcher finds this statement true in the sense that ideas are normally considered as purely thoughts. Basically, it is the brain that produces ideas and thoughts including the control of the muscle movements. For this reason, the absence of the brain makes it impossible for an idea to move a muscle. Considering all the recent empirical evidences that can be used in explaining the major causes of human action does not necessarily undermines the role of intuition related to the philosophical discourse on human freedom and responsibility. Scientific-based evidences can only explain how motor functions in the human body works but not necessarily within the context of intuition. According to Wegner (2002: p. 2), there is a clear distinction between how human intuition can cause human actions from the mechanical explanation that explain how body movement works in order to perform an action. Basically, it is the willingness of a person to perform an action that causes him to perform an action. However, there will always be a limitation to the rule such that not all individuals who are willing to perform an action will eventually perform the acts. For example: Joe is a very poor man who earns only US$1 per day out of begging from the side walks. Joe heard about the recent news on China’s earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people. Because of Joe’s kind heart, his intuition gave him the idea to financially help the victims. Due to financial limitations, Joe did not do anything about it. Even though Joe is totally free and is very much willing to make a morally good action by financially helping the victims in China’s recent earthquake, his financial limitations left him with no option but to chose not to take actions at all. Conclusion Based on the examples presented on this study, the researcher concludes that the recent empirical evidences that causes human action and moral intuition does not necessarily undermines the role of intuition in terms of philosophical discourse in human freedom and responsibility. Empirical evidences that explains the physical or mechanical body movements is totally a different context when it comes to the subject that focuses on how intuition affects the human action and his moral responsibility as a human being. For this reason, the researcher finds it impractical and senseless to compare the two. *** End *** References: Burtt, E.A. "Intuition in Eastern and Western Philosophy." Philosophy East and West (1953): Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 283 - 291. Pockett, Susan, William P. Banks and Shaun Gallagher. Does Consciousness Cause Behavior? Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2006. Wegner, Daniel M. The Illusion of Conscious Will. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002. Read More