Metaphysics the Problem of Freedom Thesis

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If free will is an illusion, then a "science of behavior" is necessary to "show us how to manipulate the causes of human behavior," (p. 401). A science of human behavior would be based on observations of how people act under certain conditions, or on how their ancestors acted. Changing destructive behaviors would require discovering the cause of those behaviors: either in a person's genetic code or in a person's environment. The intervention would target those factors, rather than encouraging the person to use willpower.

3. Blatchford believes that human conscience is practically nonexistent: it is a product of experience, of lessons learned about right and wrong behaviors. Human beings need to be taught right from wrong, and hence, human beings lack an innate ability to choose right over wrong. Of course, Blatchford presupposes that human beings would choose right over wrong rather than wrong over right if their free will permitted them to do so. Free will is not truly free; freedom of will is an illusion.

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Choices are made based on hereditary and environmental factors, even insidious choices like killing a child and throwing her body into a ditch. Blatchford is emphatic when he states that "all praise and all blame are undeserved," because the tramp is only acting out of his past programming (p. 406). Murder, according to Blatchford, is an emotionally driven act that essentially illustrates the lack of control human beings have over their choices and behaviors. Human beings can never rise above their genetics, just as a human being can never fly like birds can. As proof, Blatchford points out the ineffectualness of punishment: "Punishment has always failed of its purpose: the greater its severity, the more abject its failure," (p. 406). Reason, asserts Blatchford, can help people rise above their passions to make judicious choices. Yet reason is a….....

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