PhB Bachelor of Philosophy Bachelor of Philosophy: Free Will and Determinism 5

Question 1

Clarence Darrow's famous 1924 defense of Leopold and Loeb argued they could not be held morally responsible because their actions were the product of heredity and environment. Which philosophical position does this defense implicitly endorse?

Accepted Answer

Hard determinism

Answer

Darrow's argument mirrors hard determinism: if all actions are causally necessitated by factors outside the agent's control, traditional blame is unjustified.

Question 2

In moral philosophy, 'basic desert' moral responsibility refers to which specific notion?

Accepted Answer

Deserving praise or blame in a way that is intrinsically fitting, independent of consequences

Answer

Basic desert holds that agents can deserve reward or punishment as an end in itself, not merely for instrumental social reasons—a notion skeptics like Pereboom deny.

Question 3

What is 'global' versus 'local' skepticism about free will?

Accepted Answer

Global skepticism denies all free will; local skepticism denies it only in cases of addiction or compulsion

Answer

Global skeptics deny we ever have free will or moral responsibility; local skeptics accept free will in general but carve out exceptions for coercion, addiction, or mental illness.

Question 4

Hieronymus (Nina) Strawson's challenge to P.F. Strawson's reactive attitudes approach argues that reactive attitudes themselves may be unreliable guides to genuine responsibility because of what feature?

Accepted Answer

They evolved for social coordination rather than tracking moral truth

Answer

A common naturalistic critique of P.F. Strawson is that reactive attitudes may be evolutionary adaptations for social cohesion rather than accurate indicators of genuine desert.

Question 5

The 'rollback argument,' proposed by van Inwagen, is designed to show that indeterminism in action does not help the libertarian because any indeterminist process would be equivalent to which of the following?

Accepted Answer

A coin flip or random lottery, not genuine agent control

Answer

Van Inwagen's rollback argument asks us to imagine replaying a decision many times: indeterminist outcomes would distribute like chance, not like exercises of rational agency.

PhB Bachelor of Philosophy Practice Test

PhB Bachelor of Philosophy Practice Test

PhB Bachelor of Philosophy Bachelor of Philosophy: Free Will and Determinism 5