Understanding Indeterminism, Determinism, and Moral Responsibility
Indeterminism, Determinism, and Moral Responsibility
Indeterminism
Indeterminism is the holding that when we are free to choose and act, system states will act independently to carry out a choice between several different forms of action. There are certain options, such as maintaining a reliance on physical appearance and sustaining freedom that belongs to the rational realm alone, as in the case of discarding Kant. Others, such as Sartre’s existentialism, affirm the absolute freedom of being human. The radical origins of this trend can be traced to classical Greece, for example, the ethical relativism of the Sophists or the moral intellectualism of Plato. Kant made the most important reflection of the Enlightenment on the autonomy of the will. His contributions are such that most contemporary ethical reflections criticize certain aspects of his theory.
Moral Autonomy and Heteronomy
In order to find a foundation for the categorical imperative, Kant distinguishes between autonomy and heteronomy of the will. The will is autonomous when it gives itself its own law and is heteronomous when it passively receives the law of something or someone other than itself. Only the will can be judged as good or bad. Therefore, only an autonomous will that obeys the categorical imperative will be good.
Determinism
Determinism defends that man is not free; our decisions and moral acts are included in a chain of events that cannot be broken. Human behavior and moral content in the conscience are determined from a triple perspective: biological, psychological, and social.
Skinner and Radical Determinism
The maximum representative of American behaviorism, psychologist Skinner, was convinced that controlling parameters could be rigorously used to construct a science of behavior shaping that allowed people at all levels. Skinner’s treatment exemplifies a society in which all environmental factors were addressed, and individuals could be targeted to choose as deemed appropriate. He assumed that man has no freedom and that all our actions are determined one way or another.
Responsibility
The term “responsibility” has different uses in moral philosophy. Here are the most common applications:
- Being respectful of the rules.
- Taking action away from the moral.
- Taking on a job or anything.
Hans Jonas: Responsibility as a Principle
Trying to overcome the problems of the foundation itself, placing responsibility more as a principle of moral action, Hans Jonas came to a series of conclusions:
- The old ethical principles are challenged by the effects of contemporary scientific and technological development, and these challenges cannot be overcome by said principles.
- Traditional ethical systems deal exclusively with human relationships and let nature be a reflection of all morals.
- Technique was, in the ancient world, a simple transformation of matter in order to improve our lives. Ethics was not interested in regulating the occupations and tasks of the artisan. Today, however, science and technology have lost all their innocence and have many irreversible planetary repercussions.
The solution that is required for this world we live in needs an ethical proposal, placing responsibility with others, including future generations, as a principle of any moral action.