"The issue of moral responsibility is at the heart of the dispute between hard determinists and compatibilists. Hard determinists are forced to accept that individuals often have "free will" in the compatibilist sense, but they deny that this sense of free will can ground moral responsibility. The fact that an agent's choices are unforced, hard determinists claim, does not change the fact that determinism robs the agent of responsibility.
Compatibilists argue, on the contrary, that determinism is a prerequisite for moral responsibility. Society cannot hold someone responsible unless his actions were determined by something."
Wikipedia
"Compatibilists, on the other hand, argue that determinism is a prerequisite for moral responsibility, and that society cannot hold an individual responsible for their actions unless those actions were determined by something – in particular something other than say some random action caused spontaneously by the individual’s nervous system...
The issue of moral responsibility would thus seem to be at the heart of the dispute between hard determinists and compatibilists: whilst hard determinists might be forced to accept that individuals often have free will in the compatibilst sense, they deny that this sense of free will can ground moral responsibility. Hard determinists claim that the fact that an individual’s choices are unforced does not change the fact that determinism robs the individual of responsibility."
One of my undergraduate students...
Not the first time I've seen signs of plagiarism.
Has the student in question been referred to the appropriate disciplinary body?
ReplyDeleteObviously the undergrad student wrote that Wiki article. You're simply too cynical!
ReplyDelete