Transcript Fear of Determinism and Nihilism

Fear of Determinism and
Nihilism
Liz Beck, Amber Hager, Erica Olsen
Common Fears of
Determinism

Existential anxiety: fear that we are not in
control of our own choices

Lack of personal responsibility (freewill):
when actions are attributed to a person’s
brain, genes or evolutionary history, we no
longer hold the individual accountable
Existential Anxiety

It is our genes that decide how we behave

There would be no need for morality because we
would not be making a decision between right and
wrong

Yet, we know that we make decisions based on
information we gather from our senses, so not all
behavior can be predetermined
Personal Responsibility and
Freewill

Why does biology threaten both?
– We blame people for poor decisions only when they
intended the consequences and could have chosen
otherwise
– If genes or evolution causes people to make poor
decisions we cannot hold them responsible
– Biology of human nature would mean more and
more people are blameless

Example: A murder had no control over his actions
because it is found that he has a shrunken amygdala.
Utterly freewill also makes a
person blameless

If people had absolute free will, they could
not be held responsible for their actions
because they would not be deterred by the
threat of punishment
 People would be unaffected by moral and
legal codes because they would do whatever
they wanted
Environmental Determinism

The most recent excuse for bad behavior
has been environmental determinism not
biological determinism
– Example: the abuse excuse, the Twinkie
defense, media violence, rock lyrics, and
different cultural mores

Something is wrong with society which
causes bad behavior
Reasoning behind holding a
person responsible

To deter the person from committing similar
acts in the future
 To deter others from committing similar acts
 Our need to punish may come from the idea of
“Just deserts” or the need to retaliate
– Example: Will save someone on death row if they
try to commit suicide, just to kill him later to
enforce justice
Two Fallacies About the
Sciences of Human Nature

Biological explanations corrode
responsibility in a way that environmental
explanations do not
 Causal explanations (both biological and
environmental) corrode responsibility in a
way that belief in freewill or a soul does not
Fear of Nihilism

It is feared that a biological explanation of
the mind will strip our lives of meaning and
purpose

If everything is simply a biological event
then what is the reason for living?
Two Versions

Religious- a materialistic view of the mind
strips people from “the spiritual soul”
– Evolution stops at the soul because the soul is created
by God alone

Secular- biology takes away the values and
feelings we cherish most
– Example: We only love our children because oxytocin
compels us to protect our genetic investment
Has Morality Evolved?

Our brain has evolved to be able to think in
certain ways (abstractions)
 Moral Realism- right and wrong exist and
they have an inherent logical argument
– Example: Having a “gut feeling” or intuition
Sciences of Human Nature Do
Not Undermine Human Values

It is incorrect to say that people are
responsible for their actions only because
the causes of those actions are mysterious
 It is incorrect to say that our motives are
meaningful in a personal sense only because
they are inexplicable in a biological sense
Critical Review
Interesting Points and Agreements
 1) By holding people accountable for their
actions, you deter them from repeating offensives
in the future.
 2) The fear that the there is only a biological
explanation for the mind, which would take away
responsibility, meaning, and purpose from our
lives.
 3) From psychology, we have learned that parts of
our experiences may just be artifacts of how
information is processed in our brains.
Critical Review (cont.)
Disagreements
 1) Do we really only blame people that
intended to cause harm?
 2) Has morality really evolved or has
societal values just changed?
 3) Having a soul that outlives the body
devalues the life we live while on earth.
Any Questions?