Q2. If our actions are a consequence of our capacities and preferences, and if those things are, in turn, a result of our genetic inheritance and the external world in which we happen to find ourselves, are we ultimately responsible for our choices?
Intro:
- Unraveling the question & Thesis statement
- Definition:
- Definechoice. Aristotle defines choice as “What we decide upon as a result of deliberation, typically giving rise to voluntary action.”
- Define what it means to take responsibility for our choices. This paper explores whether we are morally responsible for our choices because other types of responsibility (legal responsibility) would depend on the social and cultural context. However, moral responsibility is more of an absolute, universal concept. This paper uses “moral responsibility” to mean someone deserves praise or blame for an action.
- Unraveling the question: To claim that “humans are not responsible for their choices” is equivalent to stating that human actions are determined and that the notion of choice is an illusion. Robots are incapable of taking responsibility because their actions are based on external input, not free will. Robots are merely a tool.
- Mini outline: This paper examines whether we have free will by distinguishing free actions (by choice) versus unfree, forced actions.
- Thesis statement: We are responsible for the former (our choices) but not the latter (forced actions).
- Definition:
BODY 1 (Topic sentences: We are responsible for our choices.)
- It cannot be denied that our choices are affected by many factors beyond our control, such as genetic inheritance or our social background. However, allowing those factors to shape one’s actions is a choice.
- Aristotle
- We know when our choices are voluntary because they are either driven by (1) intention (deliberation) or (2) pleasure (as we make choices believing they will direct us toward eudaimonia, so our choices must be pleasurable for us). (Aristotle)
- Counterclaim:
- But it is possible that humans do not always make rational, informed choices. For example, our choices may be driven by ignorance or an undesirable character.
- Rebuttal:
- Aristotle says that our character is also a choice; bad (unwise, ignorant, greedy, etc.) people became bad as a result of their choices. Thus, we are responsible for actions driven by our characters.
- SOURCE: “In Book III of the Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle (384–322 BCE) wrote that humans are responsible for the actions they freely choose to do—i.e., for their voluntary actions. While acknowledging that “our dispositions are not voluntary in the same sense that our actions are,” Aristotle believed that humans have free will because they are free to choose their actions within the confines of their natures. In other words, humans are free to choose between the (limited) alternatives presented to them by their dispositions. Moreover, humans also have the special ability to mold their dispositions and to develop their moral characters. Thus, humans have freedom in two senses: they can choose between the alternatives that result from their dispositions, and they can change or develop the dispositions that present them with these alternatives. One might object that the capacity for self-examination and reflection presupposed by this kind of freedom implies the existence of something in humans that is outside the causal order.” (https://www.britannica.com/topic/problem-of-moral-responsibility)
- Counterarguments:
- Counterargument 1: Some may argue that we are biologically determined.
- Rebuttal: The counterargument is not true because we are aware of alternative actions.
- Example: A brain tumor turned a 40-year-old schoolteacher into an uncontrollable sex addict and pedophile, but when his tumor was removed, his sex obsession disappeared. Clearly, his illnesses impacted his impacted his sex drive, but we cannot say that he had no control at all. Because he himself was aware of the crimes he was committing, he could have asked his wife to restrict his unwanted behaviors or take other preventive measures. He had a choice of alternative action, though a difficult one, so he is responsible. In this situation, he recognized and understood moral reasons for why his behaviors are unjust but simply did not take enough effort to care for them, so he is morally responsible.
- Counterargument 2: Some may argue that we are controlled by society.
- Rebuttal: The counterargument is not true because we, as rational beings, should be directed by our faculty of reasoning. Ultimately, we own our brain and thoughts.
- Example: While Eichmann’s morality went corrupt due to the totalitarian government’s control, the government cannot completely manipulate an individual’s mind. Therefore, it is difficult to say that he has no responsibility over his choice.
BODY 2 (Humans are not responsible for involuntary, forced acts)
- We know that our action is not by choice when that action causes us pain.
- We suffer when forced to perform an act against our will.
- When a robber is pointing a gun at a victim’s head, the victim is forced to follow the robber’s commands. The actions performed by the victim cannot be called a “choice” as he could not have acted otherwise (like a robot acting based on human input). These actions are involuntary because they are unlikely to lead to happiness for the victim.
- A homeless person “forced” to steal food after starving for weeks despite his best efforts to get a job and earn money. The act of stealing is unlikely to lead to happiness for the homeless, but he has no other choice if he wishes to live. Though he is legally responsible for his acts (legal responsibility is more about the consequences and damage inflicted on others), no one can blame him for what he did. Thus, he is not morally responsible.
