fandomhigh | Destiny & Free Will, #4 [Period 1, Monday, July 28]

"I haven't scared you off yet?" Ghanima asked, looking up from her game of chess. "Fantastic."

"The question of free will is if, and in what sense, rational agents exercise control over their actions and decisions," Ghani said, hopping off her desk to wander haphazardly among the desks. "Addressing this question requires understanding the relationship between freedom and cause, and determining whether the laws of nature are causally deterministic. Sounds fun, hrm?"

"The principle of free will has religious, ethical, and scientific implications. For example, in the religious realm, free will may imply that an omnipotent divinity does not assert its power over individual will and choices. In the ethical sense, it may imply that individuals can be held morally accountable for their actions. And last, but far from least, in the scientific arena it may imply that the actions of the body, including the brain and the mind, are not wholly determined by physical causality. Needless to say, the question of free will has been a central issue since the beginning of philosophical thought."

"Society generally holds people responsible for their actions, if law and order prevail, and will say that they deserve praise or blame for what they do." Ghanima shook her head, mouth pinched in distaste. "However, many believe that moral responsibility requires free will. If you have no free will, then how can you be held responsible for anything? Thus, another important issue in the debate on free will is whether individuals are ever morally responsible for their actions—and, if so, in what sense."

"There is an example that those of you native to this planet and era may be familiar with," she said, walking forward to being writing on the board. "St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans addresses the question of moral responsibility as follows: "Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" If you follow Paul's line of reasoning, individuals can still be dishonoured for their acts even though those acts were ultimately completely determined by God."

"Of course, no matter the rules one chooses to abide by, there are almost always exceptions," Ghanima stated. "One exception to the assumption that moral culpability lies in either individual character or freely willed acts is in cases where the insanity defense—or its corollary, diminished responsibility—can be used to argue that a guilty deed was not the product of a guilty mind. In such cases, the legal systems of most Western societies assume that the person is in some way not at fault, because his actions were a consequence of abnormal brain functions."

"Now, then, let's ponder." Ghanima leaned against the wall to survey the room. "Moral responsibility, madness, and free will. Go."

[OOC: ~~Wait for the~~ OCD is up! Hit it!]

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"The children are good and capable of makin' the same decisions that the fathers did," Reno said, glaring down at his notes. Yes, Reno actually took notes in this class. Wild. "It don't matter if they were told to do it. Thing is, they didn't say no, did they?"

"The children are also capable of making other decisions, or would you hold them accountable also for things that happened before they were born?" she shot back. "Am I to bear the guilt for my father's jihad, which destroyed an Empire? Or perhaps my grandmother's sins, for disobeying the orders of her sisterhood and creating the situation which allowed my father to rise to power? How about my great-grandfather, who was one of the most vile creatures to ever breathe air? I did not say 'no' to any of them. I was not alive, or I did not have the power to do so."

"Beware of how you wield blame, Reno, least it becomes part of the problem, and no true justice."

"I'm not blamin' nobody unless they stood up themselves and did that shit," came his reply as he looked up again, an eyebrow raised. "Daddy says jump and you jump, that's one thing. Daddy destroys the land and you decide to keep up the trend, that ain't no different. You inherit that shit and try to make it better, then you got a shitload of work ahead of you, but that don't make you guilty."

"Daddy says jump, or boss, Reno?" Ghanima regarded him tranquilly. "Which are we talking about really?"

Reno wanted to look away. He wanted to look away and mumble some sort of bullshit answer and be done with it, and that would be that.

But Reno straightened his shoulders a little and made a point to answer straight, loud and clear. Reno was a lot of things, but he wasn't going to shy away from this. Not anymore.

"Maybe both. Maybe I should'a said no, too. Had plenty of opportunity. Maybe things'd be better back home, and maybe not. Maybe if I didn't do it, it wouldn't make any difference anyhow. So maybe someone's gotta be guilty for it, even if we all got the choice. I dunno. I'm not claimin' to be the authority on fate and destiny, here. I just know damn well what people did and what they didn't choose to do, in my own situation, yo."

Destiny & Free Will, #4 [Period 1, Monday, July 28]

Re: Class Discussion: Moral Responsibility

Re: Class Discussion: Moral Responsibility

Re: Class Discussion: Moral Responsibility

Re: Class Discussion: Moral Responsibility

Re: Class Discussion: Moral Responsibility