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    Phil 102 Determinism Holbach

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    rhye999
    Baron d'Holbach argued that all actions, including human actions, are determined by previous causes and the laws of nature. He was a French materialist who believed that the mind is simply the brain and that humans are machines governed by natural laws like the pleasure-pain principle and self-preservation. While behavior may appear voluntary, d'Holbach believed it was always the inevitable result of desires, perceptions, and motives within a person. There is no free will, only "effective desires" that determine the will. Morality cannot change this natural determinism of human behavior.

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    Phil 102 Determinism Holbach

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    rhye999
    111 views25 pages
    Baron d'Holbach argued that all actions, including human actions, are determined by previous causes and the laws of nature. He was a French materialist who believed that the mind is simply the brain and that humans are machines governed by natural laws like the pleasure-pain principle and self-preservation. While behavior may appear voluntary, d'Holbach believed it was always the inevitable result of desires, perceptions, and motives within a person. There is no free will, only "effective desires" that determine the will. Morality cannot change this natural determinism of human behavior.

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    Phil 102 Determinism Holbach(1)

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    Baron d'Holbach argued that all actions, including human actions, are determined by previous causes and the laws of nature. He was a French materialist who believed that the mind is simply the brain and that humans are machines governed by natural laws like the pleasure-pain principle and self-preservation. While behavior may appear voluntary, d'Holbach believed it was always the inevitable result of desires, perceptions, and motives within a person. There is no free will, only "effective desires" that determine the will. Morality cannot change this natural determinism of human behavior.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    111 views25 pages

    Phil 102 Determinism Holbach

    Uploaded by

    rhye999
    Baron d'Holbach argued that all actions, including human actions, are determined by previous causes and the laws of nature. He was a French materialist who believed that the mind is simply the brain and that humans are machines governed by natural laws like the pleasure-pain principle and self-preservation. While behavior may appear voluntary, d'Holbach believed it was always the inevitable result of desires, perceptions, and motives within a person. There is no free will, only "effective desires" that determine the will. Morality cannot change this natural determinism of human behavior.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 25

    Determinism

    (DHolbach)

    This lecture will help you understand:


    French materialism
    Baron dHolbach
    Julien Offray de La Mettrie

    Laws of Nature

    Pleasure-Pain Principle
    Self-preservation

    Voluntary vs. Non-voluntary behavior


    Effective Desire
    Fatalism vs. Determinism
    Morality

    Question 1:
    What does dHolbach argue?
    A.
    B.
    C.
    D.

    some free actions are uncaused


    all actions are random
    some actions are free
    there are no free actions

    Determinism
    Determinism: is the view that that every event
    has a cause, and thus everything that
    happens, including human actions, simply
    proceeds from previous events.
    For every event that happens, there are
    previous events in conjunction with laws of
    nature that are a sufficient condition for the
    occurrence of that event.
    There is no such thing as free will.
    In principle, the future can be predicted.

    Baron dHolbach
    An atheist, a determinist,
    a materialist, a severe
    critic of religion, absolute
    monarchy, and feudalism

    Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach


    (1723-1789)

    Atheism
    If we go back to the beginning we shall find
    that ignorance and fear created the gods; that
    fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned or
    disfigured them; that weakness worships
    them; that credulity preserves them, and that
    custom, respect and tyranny support them in
    order to make the blindness of men serve its
    own interests (DHolbach, System of Nature)

    French Materialism
    Denied the existence of a deity.
    Denied evidence all a priori arguments.

    Man the Machine


    all the motion of his
    machine springs as a
    necessary consequence
    from his primitive impulse.
    (IP 312)
    if his machine were less
    complicated. (IP 318)
    the complicated motion of
    his machine (IP 318)
    The Rock Drill 1913-4Jacob
    Epstein (1880-1959)

    "Man the Machine


    In L'Homme Machine
    (1748), La Mettrie argues
    that man is simply a
    machine, subject to the
    laws of motion like any
    mechanism of
    eighteenth-century
    science.

    Julien Offray de La Mettrie


    (1709-1751)

    Mind = Brain (Holbach)


    The will . . . is a modification of the brain (IP
    313).

    Laws of Nature

    Pleasure-Pain Principle
    Self-preservation

    It is the actual essence of man to tend to his well being,


    or to be desirous to conserve his existence; if all the
    motion of his machine springs as a necessary
    consequence from this primitive impulse; if pain warn
    him of that which he ought to avoid; if pleasure
    announce to him that which he should desire; if it be in
    his essence to love that which either excites delight, or
    that from which he expects agreeable sensations; to
    hate that which either makes him fear contrary
    impressions or that which afflicts him with uneasiness; it
    must necessarily be that he will be attracted by that
    which he deems advantageous; that his will shall be
    determined by those objects which he judges useful;
    that he will be repelled by those beings which he
    believes prejudicial, either to his habitual or to his
    transitory mode of existence. (IP 312)

    What about Voluntary Behavior?


    What is voluntary behavior?
    Clearly there is a difference
    between:
    an automatic or reflex reaction
    deliberately raising ones arm

    How does Holbach explain this?

    Desire
    Desire = the inherent cause

    Auguste Rodin, The Kiss,


    1886

    Pleasure-Pain Principle
    The tendency or drive to achieve pleasure and
    avoid pain as the chief motivating force in
    behavior. We always tend toward that which
    gives us pleasure; and have an aversion to that
    which threatens pain.
    See Epicurus, Bentham, and Freud

    When it is said, that man is not a free agent, it is not


    pretended to compare him to a body moved by a simple
    impulsive cause: he contains within himself causes
    inherent to his existence; he is moved by an interior
    organ, which has its own peculiar laws, and is itself
    necessarily determined in consequence of ideas formed
    from perceptions resulting from sensations which it
    receives from exterior objects. As the mechanism of
    these sensations, of these perceptions, and the manner
    they engrave ideas on the brain of man, are not known
    to him; because he is unable to unravel all these
    motions; because he cannot perceive the chain of
    operations in his soul, or the motive principle that acts
    within him, he supposes himself a free agent; which,
    literally translated, signifies, that he moves himself by
    himself; that he determines himself without cause: when
    he rather ought to say, that he is ignorant how or for
    why he acts in the manner he does. (IP 318)

    Conflict of Desires
    Desire to drink
    (because thirsty)
    vs.
    Desire not to drink
    (because dont want to get sick)

    Will
    =
    the outcome of deliberation
    =
    the stronger desire

    Effective Desire
    Will is effective desire
    American philosopher Harry Frankfurt (Freedom of
    the Will 1971) calls the desire that moves (or will or
    would move) a person all the way to action
    effective desire.

    Question 2:
    According to dHolbach, the fact
    that a person often makes choices
    proves
    A.
    B.
    C.
    D.

    That the person has free will


    That motives do not control the will
    That the person has no motives
    Nothing about whether the person has free
    will

    Fatalism
    Dont confuse determinism with
    fatalism.
    Fatalism is the idea that the future
    is fixed regardless of what we do.

    "The Appointment in Samarra"


    A merchant in Baghdad sent his servant to the market. The servant
    returned, trembling and frightened. The servant told the merchant, "I was
    jostled in the market, turned around, and saw Death. "Death made a
    threatening gesture, and I fled in terror. May I please borrow your horse? I
    can leave Baghdad and ride to Samarra, where Death will not find me.
    The master lent his horse to the servant, who rode away, to Samarra. Later
    the merchant went to the market, and saw Death in the crowd. "Why did
    you threaten my servant?" He asked. I did not threaten your servant,
    Death replied. It was merely that I was surprised to see him here in
    Baghdad, for I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."

    Morality
    In the moral as well as in the physical world,
    every thing that happens is a necessary
    consequence of causes, either visible or
    concealed, which are of necessity obliged to
    act after their peculiar essences. In man, free
    agency is nothing more than necessity
    contained within himself. (IP 319)

    So many crimes are witnessed on earth only


    because everything conspires to render man
    vicious and criminal; the religion he has adopted,
    his government, his education, the examples set
    before him, irresistibly drive him to evil. Under
    these conditions morality preaches virtues to him
    in vain . . . . Such societies . . . frequently have the
    injustice to condemn those in penalty of death,
    whom public prejudices, maintained by constant
    example, have rendered criminal (IP 316-317).

    Punishment
    Cesare di Beccaria (1738-1794), Italian
    criminologist, jurist, philosopher, and
    politician, one of the greatest thinkers
    of the Age of Enlightenment.
    First person to condemn torture and
    the death penalty in his On Crimes and
    Punishment (1764)
    Cesare Beccaria's works had a profound
    influence on the Founding Fathers of
    the United States

    Conclusion

    In no one moment of his existence is man a free agent.


    He is not the architect of his own conformation, which
    he holds from nature; he has no control over his own
    ideas, or over the modification of his brain; these are
    due to causes, that, despite him, and without his own
    knowledge, unceasingly act upon him; he is not the
    master of not loving or coveting that which he finds
    amiable or desirable; he is not capable of refusing to
    deliberate, when he is uncertain of the effects certain
    objects will produce upon him; he cannot avoid choosing
    that which he believes will be most advantageous to
    him; in the moment when his will is determined by his
    choice he is not competent to act otherwise than he
    does. (IP 319)

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