Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Hard and soft determinism
Hard and soft determinism are both determinism and it is the same type of determinism. The difference is in how freedom is defined. With soft determinism, freedom is defined as the ability to do what you want to do. With hard determinism, (and libertarianism) freedom is a matter of being able to do otherwise from what you did given the actual past.
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How about freedom to do what you do not want to do? Some theological determinism focuses on the actor's nature - a good tree produces good fruit; a bad tree produces bad fruit. The choice is determined by the nature of the person. A person of x nature acts accordingly. The word or deed is determined by the mind or heart. If my nature is x but the goals is to act y, then I must act contrary to the desires dictated by my nature. Freedom to act then is not being able to do what I want, but the ability to do what I do not want. This requires an external influence.
'Soft' determinism is like so-called agnosticism: an incoherent attempt to be 'X' while escaping the logical entailments of 'X'.
These sort of discussions presume that laws of physics apply to everything. But this view is quite false and is falsified by the actual history of physics and even a cursory consideration of how physicists go about doing physics.
Physics applies to metrical properties of inanimate matter. Its application to living beings, such as falling of animals under gravity, treats living beings as nonliving.
Thus, any implication from laws of physics to determinism in animate world in general, and human beings in particular, is fallacious.
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