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If free will is an illusion, then a "science of behavior" is necessary to "show us how to manipulate the causes of human behavior," (p. 401). A science of human behavior would be based on observations of how people act under certain conditions, or on how their ancestors acted. Changing destructive behaviors would require discovering the cause of those behaviors: either in a person's genetic code or in a person's environment. The intervention would target those factors, rather than encouraging the person to use willpower.
3. Blatchford believes that human conscience is practically nonexistent: it is a product of experience, of lessons learned about right and wrong behaviors. Human beings need to be taught right from wrong, and hence, human beings lack an innate ability to choose right over wrong. Of course, Blatchford presupposes that human beings would choose right over wrong rather than wrong over right if their free will permitted them...
Free will is not truly free; freedom of will is an illusion. Choices are made based on hereditary and environmental factors, even insidious choices like killing a child and throwing her body into a ditch. Blatchford is emphatic when he states that "all praise and all blame are undeserved," because the tramp is only acting out of his past programming (p. 406). Murder, according to Blatchford, is an emotionally driven act that essentially illustrates the lack of control human beings have over their choices and behaviors. Human beings can never rise above their genetics, just as a human being can never fly like birds can. As proof, Blatchford points out the ineffectualness of punishment: "Punishment has always failed of its purpose: the greater its severity, the more abject its failure," (p. 406). Reason, asserts Blatchford, can help people rise above their passions to make judicious choices. Yet reason is a deliberate overriding of…
" (Ibid) the term cosmology is derived from the Greek word 'kosmos' meaning order and refers to the world and the universe. (Ibid, paraphrased) the cosmologic philosopher is stated to be on who "contemplates the nature of this order and is concerned with the relationships between the plants, the stars and the earth. The laws of the universe are important topics to cosmologic philosophers. They consider the laws of thermodynamics,
Besides this, one can, as a separate undertaking, show these people later the way of reasoning about these things. In this metaphysics, it will be useful for there to be added here and there the authoritative utterances of great men, who have reasoned in a similar way; especially when these utterances contain something that seems to have some possible relevance to the illustration of a view. (13) By contrast, Mercer
In trying to be different from the rest and in trying to act against reason people are either false or they prefer to believe that they actually have an alternative. Considering this, it is only safe to assume that freedom, as Kant sees it, is limited to performing acts that act in accordance with reason. Unlimited freedom would mean that one would act against reason and against his or
We still understand within ourselves what greatness consists of. We still make our tallies relevant to ethical considerations. We can base our society on rules and order. We can prosecute the murderers. But is all we ever do is tally and rule and prosecute, and we don't allow for the possibility of purifying ourselves in the leap into the void of greatness, we miss having the connection with greatness
Human Freedom The idea of human freedom transcends the spectrum of most subjects worthy of academic discussion. The purpose of this essay is to investigate, describe and discuss the concept of human freedom as it specifically relates to sociology and the social landscape. In order to accomplish this I will highlight some of aspects of human freedom to demonstrate the complexity and necessity of understanding this ideal. Political, religious and economic
Fichte separate right from morality and is it a good thing? Should they be separated? Fichte's Philosophy of Right and Ethics Why does Fichte separate right from morality and is it a good thing? Should they be separated? Moral and political anxieties animate Fichte's entire philosophy and his perceptions to these issues that are innovative and at times tied together. His responses to Kant's vital philosophy in 1790 was a retaliation to