Discussion Board #2/ Fatalism 

Overview:Fatalism is based on the Secular Humanist theory that human beings have no true freedom. Because we are only physical beings with no soul our fate and choices will be determined by Physical forces over which we have no control. We can do nothing to change it. Secular humanists would say that the Judaeo-Christian teaching about having Free Will to make choices is a fantasy. Since we are not free to choose we must just accept where we are in life and be satisfied. Since we have no freedom to choose we have no responsibility for our actions.

Question:Do you think many people in our society have developed a fatalistic attitude  towards life?                                           

What do you think about FATALISM ? 

Determinism vs Free Will

Unit Objectives

This week you will have two written assignments calling for your analysis of the material presented below.

a Discussion Board Question#2 FATALISM (go to forums) and Online Quiz#2 on March 25 will cover online March 18 material

**Go to Discussion Board questions to get the question and be sure to respond to another student’s post

1. Demonstrate knowledge:

· Contrast the Secular Humanist view of Determinism with Judeo Christian view of Free Will

· Different Forms of Determinism and their authors

· Predestination, Physical Scientific, Biological & Genetic,Economic/Social, Historical, Psychological,

· The Principle of Universal Causation

· Fatalism

·  

Assignment Summary

The Secular Humanist Theory of Determinism is the philosophical idea that is based on a principle called

UNIVERSAL CAUSATION
 that all events, including moral choices, are determined completely by previously existing causes.

This includes moral choices over which we have no control

Determinism is at times understood to preclude free will because it entails that humans cannot act otherwise than they do. It can also be called as 

hard determinism

 from this point of view. 

Hard determinism

 is a position on the relationship of determinism to free will. The theory holds that the universe is utterly rational because complete knowledge of any given situation assures that unerring knowledge of its future is also possible.

[1]

 Some philosophers suggest variants around this basic definition.

[2]

 Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have sprung from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and considerations. The opposite of determinism is some kind of 

indeterminism

 (otherwise called nondeterminism). Determinism is often contrasted with 

free will

. It is a widely held humanist theory.

In it’s attempt to prove by Secular Humanists their position on the nature of human beings is correct different theories have been used to prove Determinism is

 correct that human beings are not free to choose.

1.

 Religious Determinism  (Predestination)  put forth by John

 Calvin

    Since God is all knowing he knows our future and whether we will be saved or damned

    We can do nothing to change our salvation  it is already fixed by God. Therefore we are not free

2

. Physical Science Determinism put forth by Sir Isaac Newton 

     
He said the entire universe is governed by natural physical laws which cannot be altered

   (ex the law of gravity, or the change in seasons etc]. Everything in creation is PHYSICAL including

    human beings. Therefore we are not free

    Humanists believe we are only a physical body there is no such thing as a soul.

    Therefore, our choices are also caused by physical forces over which we have no control.

3. Biological/ Genetic Determinism by Charles Darwin.  He taught that biology/genetics determines   human beings.What we are and will be has been     

    inherited from those before us, parents , grandparents etc. Therefore we do not have free will

4.  Historical Determinism this theory was developed by Georg Hegel

 He throught when we study the history of the world, human beings are unable to free themselves from the mistakes of the past. We are doomed to making the same mistakes until the end of the world. War, Violence, Poverty, Injustice all of these are part of human nature therefore we are not free to change them

5. Economic/Social determinism was a theory put forth by Karl Marx. He was the founder of Communism. Human beings are inevitably determined by their social class and economic resources. Our social backround and financial situations determin our choices. Therefore we are not free.

6. Psychological determinism was developed by Sigmund Freud . He taught that what we do is determined on two levels the Conscious level ( awareness)and the Subconscious level( unawareness)

We are many times controled in our actions by the subconscious therefore we are not free.

7. Fatalism is the belief that events and choices are irrevocably fixed and predetermined so that human beings cannot alter them in any way. We are determined by Fate and have no control over what happenes to us in life. All we can do is wait and accept what happens to us. We have no free will. This is a very negative and destructive theory and is much present in today’s society.

Is Free Will or Determinism Correct?

The history of philosophy has been dominated by competing arguments around the ideas of Free Will and Determinism. Simply stated, the issue hangs on whether human beings should be thought of as fundamentally free to choose their actions and mold their lives – or whether they should be deemed as being at heart determined by forces beyond their control, be they fate, biology, politics or class.

The debate has been long-running and hugely vicious. It began in Ancient Greece, was picked up by the Romans, dominated Christian philosophy and rumbles on to this day among philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists.

The Judeo-Christian Theories/ Free Will and Responsibility( 

taken from Catholic Catechism

1731 Freedom/Free Will is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. By free will one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.

1732 As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning. This freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or blame, merit or reproach.

1733 The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. the choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to “the slavery of sin.”28

1734 Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the extent that they are voluntary. Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and ascesis enhance the mastery of the will over its acts.

1735 Imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors.

1736 Every act directly willed is imputable to its author:

Thus the Lord asked Eve after the sin in the garden: “What is this that you have done?”29 He asked Cain the same question.30 The prophet Nathan questioned David in the same way after he committed adultery with the wife of Uriah and had him murdered.31 
An action can be indirectly voluntary when it results from negligence regarding something one should have known or done: for example, an accident arising from ignorance of traffic laws.

1737 An effect can be tolerated without being willed by its agent; for instance, a mother’s exhaustion from tending her sick child. A bad effect is not imputable if it was not willed either as an end or as a means of an action, e.g., a death a person incurs in aiding someone in danger. For a bad effect to be imputable it must be foreseeable and the agent must have the possibility of avoiding it, as in the case of manslaughter caused by a drunken driver.

1738 Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings. Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of respect. the right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This right must be recognized and protected by civil authority within the limits of the common good and public order.32

I. The Passions

1763 The term “passions” belongs to the Christian patrimony. Feelings or passions are emotions or movements of the sensitive appetite that incline us to act or not to act in regard to something felt or imagined to be good or evil.

1764 The passions are natural components of the human psyche; they form the passageway and ensure the connection between the life of the senses and the life of the mind. Our Lord called man’s heart the source from which the passions spring.40

1765 There are many passions. the most fundamental passion is love, aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and joy of the good possessed. the apprehension of evil causes hatred, aversion, and fear of the impending evil; this movement ends in sadness at some present evil, or in the anger that resists it.

1766 “To love is to will the good of another.”41 All other affections have their source in this first movement of the human heart toward the good. Only the good can be loved.42 Passions “are evil if love is evil and good if it is good.”43

I. The Sources of Morality ( Object and Intention)

1750 The morality of human acts depends on: 
– the object chosen; WHAT DID YOU DO?
– the end in view or the intention; WHY DID YOU DO IT?
– the circumstances of the action are also considered
The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the “sources,” or constitutive elements, of the morality of human acts.

1751 The object chosen is a good toward which the will deliberately directs itself. It is the matter of a human act. the object chosen morally specifies the act of the will, insofar as reason recognizes and judges it to be or not to be in conformity with the true good. Objective norms of morality express the rational order of good and evil, attested to by conscience.

1752 In contrast to the object, the intention resides in the acting subject. Because it lies at the voluntary source of an action and determines it by its end, intention is an element essential to the moral evaluation of an action. the end is the first goal of the intention and indicates the purpose pursued in the action. the intention is a movement of the will toward the end: it is concerned with the goal of the activity. It aims at the good anticipated from the action undertaken. Intention is not limited to directing individual actions, but can guide several actions toward one and the same purpose; it can orient one’s whole life toward its ultimate end. For example, a service done with the end of helping one’s neighbor can at the same time be inspired by the love of God as the ultimate end of all our actions. One and the same action can also be inspired by several intentions, such as performing a service in order to obtain a favor or to boast about it.

1753 A good intention (for example, that of helping one’s neighbor) does not make behavior that is intrinsically disordered, such as lying and calumny, good or just. the end does not justify the means. Thus the condemnation of an innocent person cannot be justified as a legitimate means of saving the nation. On the other hand, an added bad intention (such as vainglory) makes an act evil that, in and of itself, can be good (such as almsgiving).39

1754 The circumstances, including the consequences, are secondary elements of a moral act. They contribute to increasing or diminishing the moral goodness or evil of human acts (for example, the amount of a theft). They can also diminish or increase the agent’s responsibility (such as acting out of a fear of death). Circumstances of themselves cannot change the moral quality of acts themselves; they can make neither good no

oing to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed. In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the pr

Catholic Catechism Sources

Judaeo-Christian Conscience

Unit  Objectives

Demonstrate knowledge of the  Judeo-Christian Theory on Conscience

I. The Judgment of Conscience

1777 Moral conscience,
48 present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil.49 It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.

1778 Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed. In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law:

Conscience is a law of the mind; yet [Christians] would not grant that it is nothing more; I mean that it was not a dictate, nor conveyed the notion of responsibility, of duty, of a threat and a promise…. [Conscience] is a messenger of him, who, both in nature and in grace, speaks to us behind a veil, and teaches and rules us by his representatives.

1779 It is important for every person to be sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his conscience. This requirement of interiority is all the more necessary as life often distracts us from any reflection, self-examination or introspection:

Return to your conscience, question it…. Turn inward, brethren, and in everything you do, see God as your witness.

1.Conscience must be Informed

( What worldly knowledge do you know about the issue, books, courses, discussion groups etc  which have  contributed to your knowledge  and point of view on an issue. 

2.Conscience must be Enlightened

 If you practice a religion,What might your religion teach you is the right action to choose?If you do not have a particular religious system to guide you, this aspect would be missing.

1780 The dignity of the human person implies and requires uprightness of moral conscience. Conscience includes the perception of the principles of morality (synderesis); their application in the given circumstances by practical discernment of reasons and goods; and finally judgment about concrete acts yet to be performed or already performed. the truth about the moral good, stated in the law of reason, is recognized practically and concretely by the prudent judgment of conscience. We call that man prudent who chooses in conformity with this judgment.

1781 Conscience enables one to assume responsibility for the acts performed. If man commits evil, the just judgment of conscience can remain within him as the witness to the universal truth of the good, at the same time as the evil of his particular choice. the verdict of the judgment of conscience remains a pledge of hope and mercy. In attesting to the fault committed, it calls to mind the forgiveness that must be asked, the good that must still be practiced, and the virtue that must be constantly cultivated with the grace of God:

TO THE EXTENT THAT WE ARE FREE TO MAKE CHOICES WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THOSE CHOICES in CONSCIENCE.

1782 Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. “He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters.”53

READING: MEDICAL ETHICS TEXT by O’ROURKE  Conscience pg. 24-31
Assignment Summary