Determinism, Indeterminism, Ethics, and Justice: A Philosophical Overview
Determinism
Determinism denies freedom, although it may admit its appearance or accept its coexistence in practice as if it were real, but without truly being as represented.
Foundation in the Natural Sciences
- Physical or Mechanistic Determinism: Although humans can be considered more complex, they would still be determined by the laws of physics or matter.
- Biological or Physiological Determinism: Human behavior is determined by biological or physiological factors. Geneticists argue that human behavior is inscribed in the genetic information.
Reliance on Social Science
In social terms, our actions are not only a result of natural factors but also of the social environment, culture, education, etc.
- Educational Determinism: Psychology (Skinner and behaviorists). Skinner defends that human behavior can be understood as a response to social stimuli that reinforce or disapprove of conduct. Human action is an effect of learning.
- Sociological Determinism: Human action is constrained by social factors that place limits, impossibilities, or allow certain behaviors.
Merits Purely Philosophical
Philosophy has developed its own discourse on the possibility of human freedom-determinism.
- Rational man is first and above all rationality, and reason always follows those involving a greater motivation for the individual.
- Theological Determinism: They feel that freedom is not a property of man, but a call of a transcendent God; this is a reality that is behind any human action.
Indeterminism
Indeterminism affirms freedom as a basic reality, although support staff in life and social conditions appear to limit it. Many authors advocate the radical freedom of human behavior, without which it cannot be understood as specific to humans. This position supports the presence of conditioning.
From Biblical Revelation
It is considered that God made man in His image, that is, free. The fall into sin was a loss of liberty; thus, salvation always represents freedom.
From the Philosophical Position of Thomism
Thomas Aquinas said that man is free to be rational and is endowed with intelligence and will. The will appeals to everyone, but being left to limited intelligence, it can evaluate and decide one or the other. God is able to attract in a special way.
From the Need for Ethics in Man
According to Kant, the human being is an ethical and moral autonomy, and this necessarily requires being free by nature.
From the New Science of Physics
Quantum mechanics states that the laws of nature do not work in a deterministic way but by chance. It is impossible to state with certainty the future state of any natural system.
From the Psychological Science of Being Existential
Sartre and Mounier have in common that they consider the human being is defined by its existence: first, we exist, and then we build a project through life. It is an open company, so it is assumed that there is freedom to build the existence of humans by the choice of one project or another.
Ethical Materials
It is considered that the foundation of moral action is located in the object of ethical reflection. Action should focus on the analysis of the qualities of that object and how it can be achieved.
Eudaemonism
Aristotle claimed all men have to happiness. He says if man wants to achieve happiness, he has to practice intellectual virtues (wisdom and prudence) and ethical virtues (fortitude, temperance, and modesty). Aristotle introduced a novelty in requiring the presence of material goods for man to be happy.
Hedonism
Hedonism holds that the ultimate end of man is not good but pleasure. For Epicurus and his group of followers, pleasure consisted in the absence of pain. If you desire and manage to cancel each satisfied desire, happiness is achieved.
Stoicism
Stoicism was developed by the philosopher Seneca. Wisdom provides super self-feelings and passions to rational control through any life situation, enduring what happens.
Christian Ethics (Aquinas)
For Thomas Aquinas, ethics is also cutting-edge. God is the ultimate perfection and is considered to be the end toward which human action is oriented. To act morally is equivalent to a form of being happy.
Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarianism refers to the doctrine that the supreme value that must guide human action is utility. For Bentham, it is based on pleasure and pain. This approach provides a standard of what is right, wrong, good, or bad. To choose what is good or bad, there is a need for a calculus of pleasures and pains that should be judged with some criteria. Stuart Mill distinguished different kinds of pleasures; their morale is inductive because it insists all its proposals are drawn from experience.
Formal Ethics
Formal ethics understands that the foundation of moral action is located in the action itself. The goal is not always to reach a final good content. It only moves the line of duty, which is identified with corrective action.
Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Categorical imperatives oblige themselves without conditions. Kant moves toward a defense of formal ethics, claiming that man is moved by the categorical imperative, which explains how to act morally correctly. Example: Do not kill, must be regarded as an ethical principle that must be satisfied by duty.
Ethics of Material Values
Max Scheler criticized Kant’s formalism and ignored the emotional aspect of humans. In humans, there are many elements like love, hate, or envy that are not rational but serve to organize and guide life, and these are values.
Existentialism
Existentialism does not mark moral objects a priori. It insists that it should be pursued in two key areas: the priority of existence over essence and the openness of being the only human certainty. Existentialism is part of man, faced with his own existence, who must take charge of their own lives and build a project through which he can give meaning to his existence.
Distributive justice: Distribution of goods, benefits, and advantages in the right measure between all individuals in the community.
Commutative justice: Refers to acts that should be tried and are fixed by law to equal treatment for all.
Marxist Theory: A just society must be identified with equal opportunities.
Neocontractualism: Institutions that deal with goods and burdens fairly, considering that each person has the right to liberty and equality of opportunity always.