Exam 7: Freedom

David Hume, who was a soft determinist, believed that we could say that an act was free

What does Jean-Paul Sartre mean when he says we are "condemned to be free"?

When Rousseau argued that people should be forced to be free (by being made to "obey the general will" of the people), he was endorsing

Indeterminists often argue that while all events have causes, there is a "gap" in the sequence of causes large enough to allow for free choice.

Soft determinists believe that

What is compatibilism ?

Aristotle believed that an action might be free even if the person who did it was pushed or forced into doing it.

In focusing exclusively on negative freedom, we can easily

In the statement "Every event has its sufficient natural explanatory cause(s)," the word sufficient means that the cause is

To t he hero of Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, freedom is acting entirely on whim, for no reason whatsoever.

According to the African Yoruba philosophy, prior to being born, people know what sort of "ori" or soul they will have, and hence whether they will have good or bad luck in their lives.

Harry Frankfurt believed that we do not have responsibility for our actions unless we have real options to do otherwise than we did.

Suppose someone offers Anne a cigarette after she has decided to give up smoking. According to Kant, Anne

The statement that we are "condemned to be free" was made by

There is no difference between metaphysical libertarianism and political libertarianism.

Write a fictional, argumentative dialogue between two or more characters debating the meaning of freedom and the problem of freedom and determinism. Your characters should each take stands and defend them with clearly stated reasons. They can respectfully disagree with one another, and should try to address each other's criticisms. Be especially aware of the assumptions that each character makes when s/he takes a stand. Your dialogue can conclude with agreement, agreeing to disagree, or some sort of new synthesis of preliminary positions. Dialogues should include discussion of the meaning and importance or value of freedom, and of some aspects of the debate over freedom and determinism. They should bring out your perceptions of what's at stake in this issue.   You can draw on materials from Chapter 7, but you are not limited to these. You may also wish to stage this dialogue as an oral presentation to your class or make a video of it.

If a man holds a gun to my head and forces me to give him my wallet, then

Briefly explain Aristotle's two conditions for a free action.

The strongest version of determinism implies that "Every event has its sufficient natural explanatory cause(s)."

What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic freedom?