M3: JOURNAL – Chapter 5.1-5.3

Read the assigned reading from the chapter. Then choose ONE of the questions below to answer. 

Be sure to explain your answers and give reasons for your views. You should cite the textbook and use brief quotations and summaries from the textbook in your response. Do NOT use any other sources besides the textbook. 

Are you bothered by the thought of a rigidly determined existence? Does the idea that all your actions are determined disturb you– or reassure you?

How would a personal belief in determinism affect your view of crime and punishment? Do you think that people are generally responsible for their crimes, or are they not responsible due to deterministic forces beyond their control? 

Do you believe that every event has a cause and that free actions are possible? If so, are these beliefs compatible?

Does it matter to you whether you have free will? Would your behavior change if you believed (or didn’t believe) that all your actions were determined by forces beyond your control?

Are free acts, as Stace and compatibilists say, “those whose immediate causes are psychological states in the agent?” Would such acts still be free if the “psychological states” were secretly controlled by someone else through hypnosis?