Explain What Is Meant When People Say That We Are Not Free to Make Moral Decisions

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Explain what is meant when people say that “we are not free to make moral decisions”. (30 marks) To believe in the statement of “we are not free to make moral decisions; one must acquire the understanding of determinism and to some extent, predestination. Rousseau summed this belief as a ‘man is free but everywhere he is in chains’. Determinism is the belief that choices are influenced by factors other than the will of the individual. A hard determinist believes that one does not have the free will to act morally and that all moral decisions have uncontrollable prior causes. Although one can perceive the idea in which each individual has free will, they are bound by influences out of that one’s control. This idea was strongly supported by Thomas Hobbes. He explains such boundaries with his river analogy, ‘the water is said to descend freely […] because there is no impediment that way, but not across, because the banks are impediments’. These ‘banks’ are boundaries one has to face, such as education, money and quite significantly, family. Right from the beginning of human development, the child or baby is controlled and heavily influenced by family, and later on, education and schools. These years strongly influence the individual’s trail of thought and the making of moral decisions. Although this individual is free to go down a path they desire, they have boundaries that were formed right from birth, from the beginning. These ‘banks’ are impediments in that individuals life, and thus restricts one’s moral decisions. Therefore, many believe that ‘we are not free to make moral decisions’ because of these boundaries that are bound to use from the moment we are born. To further illuminate this idea that ‘we are not free to make moral decisions’, John Broadus Watson and his belief in behaviourism truly gives an insight into this matter. He stated that if one were to

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