THE ART OF BEING HUMAN9TH EDITION

Chapter 16: Freedom

Pearson Longman © 2009

“This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:• any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;• preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images;• any rental, lease, or lending of the program.”

DETERMINISM: PEOPLE ARE LIMITED IN THEIR CHOICES

Determinism - the philosophical belief that everything has a prior cause and consequently absolute free will cannot exist.

There are too many factors governing our choices.

Pearson Longman © 2009

DETERMINISM: PEOPLE ARE LIMITED IN THEIR CHOICES

Past and Present Limitations of Free Action Restrictions by those in power

Chinese Dreams Reading Lolita in Tehran

Institutional Determinism Rousseau - the will is governed by restrictive

forces of law, education, and religion because of the natural depravity of a few people.

Pearson Longman © 2009

DETERMINISM: PEOPLE ARE LIMITED IN THEIR CHOICES

Economic Determinism Marx - the quest for money controls

behavior. Two classes

bourgeoisie - middle class that controls production

proletariat - workers who will rise up against the bourgeoisie, leading to a classless society.

Pearson Longman © 2009

DETERMINISM: PEOPLE ARE LIMITED IN THEIR CHOICES

Economic Determinism Hegel – a method of analyzes opposing views

and combining them into synthesis.

Character Consistency We expect consistency and predictability in

people.

Pearson Longman © 2009

DETERMINISM: PEOPLE ARE LIMITED IN THEIR CHOICES

Behaviorism a philosophy and school of psychology that

people are what they do and what they do is determined by systems of rewards and punishments.

B.F. Skinner

Pearson Longman © 2009

DETERMINISM: PEOPLE ARE LIMITED IN THEIR CHOICES

Genetics a type of determinism that suggests our genes

determine the people we become.

Sociobiology a social science that suggests human

behavior can be understood in terms of genetic investment, the need to propagate and preserve one’s genes.

Pearson Longman © 2009

POSSIBILITIES FOR FREEDOM

A Pessimist’s Definition of the Will Schopenhauer – sometimes people are forced

to act; and because they have free will, the results are not always positive.

Regret and Relief William James and Interdeterminism

philosophy that whatever happens does so randomly, without clear prior cause, and therefore we have free will to make choices.

Pearson Longman © 2009

POSSIBILITIES FOR FREEDOM

Psychoanalysis: Freedom through Conscious Ego

Psychoanalysis - a technique that examines a patient’s dreams and patterns of free association in an effort to diagnosis the causes of neurotic behavior and mental illness.

We can free our minds thus becoming free to act as we wish, instead of acting under the control of something repressed in our subconscious.

FreudPearson Longman © 2009

EXISTENTIALISMReligious Existentialism Kierkegaard & Buber

maintained that we are free to believe or not as we choose; but once having committed ourselves to a faith, we must abide by it or face the bleak possibility that life is without meaning.

Pearson Longman © 2009

EXISTENTIALISMSecular Existentialism Sartre, Camus, & de Beauvoir No god exists We are free to choose but we must

accept the consequences for the actions.

Pearson Longman © 2009

FREEDOM WITHIN LIMITATTIONS

Non-Western Thought Trungpa - The Myth of Freedom True freedom is to surrender to reality

and accept things as they are thus liberating from pain.

Pearson Longman © 2009