On Tuesday there was a very interesting discussion regarding
determinism and free will. Kant recognizes that if we are going to take the
idea of cause and effect (or the laws of Newtonian physics) seriously, then we
have to accept that everything in the observable universe, including ourselves,
operates strictly according to these laws.
However, he does not let this stop him from suggesting that we must
presuppose the Idea of freedom, which is to say that our will is capable of
acting autonomously. Professor Silliman
suggested that this necessity is based on the fact that, if we were to accept
determinism and the absence of free will, we would have to give up on the whole
idea of morality. However, in addition
to that, I think that Kant is actually saying something even more basic. I believe he is saying that, from a practical
point of view, we have to regard ourselves as free. As rational beings, we would not even be able
to make sense of our daily experience without the Idea that we are actually
making choices. It is one thing to
defend determinism on an intellectual level, but the actual experience of
living life seems to require that we at least imagine ourselves as free. This is why Kant feels that he does not even
need to prove that freedom exists. For him,
“every being which cannot act otherwise than under the Idea of freedom is
thereby really free in a practical respect” (Foundation for the Metaphysics of Morals, p. 883).
I agree with your interpretation of Kant, but I do not agree with Kant. I do not agree with the supposition that we must imagine ourselves as free. Pragmatically, I think it is perfectly conceivable that one could believe the universe to be deterministic and still lead a happy, productive life. For one, it would remove those pesky ideologies of praise and blame from our discourse, which I always found to be silly anyway. And it would also do away with the notions of punishment, retribution, and vengeance, all three of which I find to be ridiculous. Instead, we would focus on a crafting a world devoid of responsibility, in an attempt to make everyone as happy as possible. Because, deterministic or not, we still have to live here. Let me give an example to perhaps crystalize this world view a bit. If you were napping in a hammock in the woods and a bear came and attacked you, you would have a problem, yes? You would know that this was a dangerous situation. But once animal control was called, and the bear was sedated and put in captivity, you wouldn't bring it upon yourself to hate the bear, or seek retribution upon the bear. The bear didn't do anything wrong. He was just being a bear. Similarly, if you were attacked by a psychopath with a chainsaw, he wasn't doing anything wrong either. He was just being a psychopath. I think, while we obviously must protect ourselves from bears and psychopaths, blaming them for their behavior is a waste of time. Also, people often ask questions such as "If the universe is deterministic, why do anything?" Well, quite simply, because doing nothing is also a choice. Quite a difficult one, in fact. Try to lay in bed all day and literally do nothing and you'll see what I mean. Ultimately, I think it would be beneficial for us to recognize the deterministic nature of our universe.
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify, my disagreement here is with Kant and everyone who thinks that freedom must be assumed. I am aware that you were just explaining Kant's view and not articulating your own.
Works for bears and (extreme) psychopaths (remember, all these things come in degrees!). But with other, normal people, I suspect you still would want to reason with them about the value of their behavior, and hope to change the behavior by changing their minds...
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