Determinism, Libertarianism and Compatibilism - Essay Example

Determinism, Libertarianism and Compatibilism Determinism, Libertarianism and Compatibilism Determinism in a philosophical view,which states that all events usually have a cause including mental events, that is, both mental and physical affairs are describable by scientific law and conditioned by their causes. It is usually determined by the natural laws or preceding events. Determinism is also reviewed by philosophers that physical events are made to happen, but mental processes are not. Mental processes only involve choices, which have no effect in the external world (Lemos, 2013). Meanwhile, free will also plays a critical part in apportioning our praise or blame and upholding people morally responsible for their actions and behaviors. Silenus the Satyr is a weird creature, half goat, half man who was created by Hench in the laboratory. Robinett’s The Satyr story is an example of a hard determinism. In the story a Silenus, a satyr, acts like a real hard determinist where he is unbelievable in accepting that he is responsible for his behaviors and actions since he is a creature of another person named Hench. Silenus explains that his enormous welfare in women and his immoral behavior was inherited from Hench, who gave him extra Y-chromosome that led to a main determinant of her behavior (Lemos, 2013. Silenus tries to suggest most of the time it is not the will of the men to have interests on ladies, but blames the parents for giving birth to them as men. That is where the issue of Y-chromosomes is addressed since biologically, men are said to have many Y-chromosomes than X-chromosomes. According to the satyr, human beings are the only creatures who have the responsibility of what they do. There are two concepts here; Silenus does not classify himself as a person on the one hand and that Hench created him on the other hand. The concept of being created by Hench, Silenus believes that Hench is responsible for him and any action or behavior he does. Silenus pretends that he does not know exactly the reason he does some things and claims that Hench is the one who made him so and, therefore; Hench should account for what he is, acts and behaves (Lemos, 2013). However, Silenus does not give a clear depiction in the story why he believes that Hench is responsible for him, his actions and behaviors. The actions and behaviors of Silenus give a clear depiction that he does not care about his responsibility at all. He considers the situation as essential although peculiar notion that he always use to appeal to the sense of responsibility of Hench on influencing his decisions to favor himself. Near the end of the story, the Satyr was sold as a slavery that lacked both the women and booze because of his actions of having sex with ladies without their consent. Silenus repeatedly convinces Hench by hard determinism point of view that everything that usually happen has a reason and if caused cannot be free. The reactions show that Silenus has neither moral responsibility nor free will. Silenus urged Hench that since everything has a cause or is generated by prior actions, he cannot accept accountability of his actions and be punished for raping (Lemos, 2013). The statement reassured the innocence of Silenus and caused Hench to recall the possibility that the creation of constant sex drive of the Satyr cannot be changed. All that information justifies that Satyr’s view that he has no moral responsibility for his behaviors and actions. Hench takes the position of libertarianism. Libertarianism is a categorization of political philosophies that consider liberty as the main objectives. According to the story, the libertarianism involves about the social and moral responsibility. Libertarians always seek to maximize freedom of choice, autonomy, voluntary association and the primacy of personal judgment (Brennan, 2012). Libertarian is someone who believes that the humans should have the right to say and do what they like and want without any interference. According to the story, Satyr has depicted that he is not responsible of his actions and behavior of raping women without their consent, but considered Hench to be responsible for him and his actions and behavior. Hench recognizes that he is responsible for Silenus’s behaviors considering that in the first case he was the one who created him. Taking the example of a real life situation, when a person decides to create a model he or she plans how to do it, how it will appear and for what purpose. The materials, which a person would use will also determine the durability of the thing. After the completion of the model, it does not mean that the model will remain on that condition or appearance forever; it can be subjected to other external factors that can lead to breakage or malfunction. It is the responsibility of the owner to care and maintain it; otherwise it cannot serve him or her accordingly. Relating to the story of Hench and the Satyr, Hench accepted that he was responsible for the Satyr and his behaviors because he was the one who created him. Therefore, Hench allows the Satyr to do what he likes and wants according to the nature, which usually takes its cause and be responsible for him in any way. Compatibilists always consider determinism to be compatible with the personal freedom and indeterminism not coherent or compatible. They suggest that there should be a deterministic or connection between the will of a person and his actions, which makes a person, be responsible for his or her actions including the blame for the bad and credit for the good. Compatibilists or soft determinists recognize freedom of action with free will, to be precise; there is no influence of external constraints (Salles, 2005). Many compatibilists believe the repetition of events with time abides with the laws of nature due to the plan of God or other determinisms. They define it as a casual chain where they say that are free as long as their will is incorporated in that casual chain. Campatibilists also suggests that causality in nature usually have a relationship to the possibility of logic and reason. Basing with the concept of compatibilism, spiritual masters keep us in mind that we are not human doings, but human beings. Basically, it means that we are consciousness residing or spiritual beings in physical bodies (Corrigan, 2007). We live on earth to learn and experience things, which just means “to be.” Simultaneously, there is a need of living according to the nature, meaning that people should work in order to earn their living, which is the “doing.” The spiritual and material are usually in non-equilibrium state, which needs to be balanced. The required balance in life is between the human being side and the human doing side. On the one hand, the human being side always involves in exploration and learning in earth’s classroom. It usually has an urge of being connected with the Divine and shares such love with other beings. Being also seeks relationships and unity with other beings. The spiritual lessons and past life information are some of the things, which are vital facets of our being natures. Joy, emotions and seek of higher knowledge are also categorized in this part (Brennan, 2012). The activities that our being appreciates most are meditation, play, prayer and just hanging out. On the other hand, the human side usually deals with daily chores and routines. In this human side, everyone does everything essential to ensure his or her survival. That is why people go school and work, go through difficult things and pay their bills on a more practical and physical level. In such situations, people feel like they are in a hamster wheel or just revolving around same things, but, all in all, no one can the things are unnecessary or unimportant proving that people exists in a physical reality. There comes a situation where people need to do other things for them to reach their spiritual or physical goals. The most difficult thing is between balancing the two. In most cases, many people spend much of their time on their doing side and forget or do little on the being side. People need to understand that it is also not necessary to balance the both sides with exactly equal time. The critical thing is to have adequate “doing” time and adequate “being” time to feel balanced, which vary to an individual. The next thing to put into account is to understand that we are multidimensional beings. The being side does not work on scheduled time like the physical body does since it is eternal. In general, most of the people spend more time on the physical side than being side. The key condition is left to an individual on finding the balance between the being side and the doing side. Some of the things one can do one in order to balance the being and doing is creating a leisure time, and practicing meditation. In the first case, one can create a fraction of time just to stay idle and in the other case of meditation one can listen to music. The two can balance help in balancing. The being also involves playing, knitting, painting, filling puzzles and anything one can enjoy. Achieving a balance between human doing and human being mode is always a difficult task. People engage in other activities for survival and forget their being. The moral lesson of the story in relation to the story of the Satyr and Hench [portrays how Michael Gorr should advice Hench about the Satyr. Hench should understand that Silenus has an imbalance between his being and doing. Silenus considers most of her time on being side that makes him even engages into undesirable activities of raping women meaning he lacked spirituality. The best action that Hench should take is to allow Silenus to do according to his will and wishes because maybe the balance act between being and doing of him ranges at level making difficult to change. Silenus lacks spirituality according to the thing he usually does. Gorr advises Hench that maybe the Satyr is controlled by other determinisms other than God, so he should leave him to have the freedom of actions and face the repercussions alone. Gorr also suggests everything happens with a reason and maybe a repetition according to the nature. Between determinism, libertarianism and compatibilism, they have different significance views where unaccountability can stop, and moral responsibility and free will begin. Determinism has an opinion that every action and decision is usually a cause of genetics, event or the environment prior to the action. Libertarianism, which is quite the opposite of determinism, is considered to be a genuine belief in the free will and denies universal causation (Salles, 2005). Finally deep compatibilism goes against the two by introducing the idea that person’s action can be free if it stems out from personal desire. The three judgments have convincing arguments making it difficult to live one. According to my point of view, compatibilism is recognizable than the others. Compatibilism brings an issue of having relationship with God or other determinism who controls the nature and all the features. Under compatibilism, there is a freedom of action where one can act or behavior according to his or her being. It is a difficult task on choosing compatibilism because even they have facts about why people behave the way they do (Salles, 2005). Determinism and libertarianism consider the nature or environment, genetics, event and free will plays a big role on influencing the moral responsibility and behaviors of a person. I agree the factors also affect, but there is existence of omniscient God or other determinisms that are superior of all the nature including human beings and controls them. In conclusion, as determinism has been stated as every decision and act or event is an inescapable result of the past histories that are independent of free will. It simply states that people usually have the free will of making choices. It just happens on its own without anything or anybody interference (Brennan, 2012). The belief is true in religion, effect and cause. Most of the religious people believe that the determinism is supported by the existence of god. Since god is all knowing and all powerful nothing is unknown to him. If people have the freedom of free will, they will do things that are unfamiliar to god thus limiting him from being powerful. Determinism usually involves mental choices and moral responsibility of an individual. Libertarianism always involves the moral and social responsibility of people. Libertarians always consider primary personal judgment, freedom of choice and voluntary association among people. Libertarians always believe that people should do what they want and like. Silenus had, therefore, the freedom of making choices in accordance to his will, but at the same time the freedom of acting can lead to some consequences. For example, the satyr faced the charges of making love with a woman without her consent. Compatibilism involves the repetition of events abiding with the laws of nature due to the existence of other supernatural powers, which are God or other determinisms (Salles, 2005). According to the story, the satyr lacked the spiritual believe that there is existence of God and did according to his will and desires. The being and doing of the Satyr are imbalanced where he used his being into immoral behaviors of making love with women without their consent. The actions and behavior of the satyr seem like it was, as a result of, staying idle where he should have engaged into other activities such as playing or meditating. References Brennan, J. (2012). Libertarianism: What everyone needs to know. New York: Oxford University Press. Corrigan, R. H. (2007). Divine foreknowledge and moral responsibility. London: Prism Academic Publishing. Honderich, T. (2005). On determinism and freedom. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Lemos, J. (2013). Freedom, responsibility, and determinism: A philosophical dialogue. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co. Salles, R. (2005). The Stoics on determinism and compatibilism. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate Pub. Read More