We Are Not Responsible for Our Actions, Discuss.

Critically asses the view that we are not responsible for our action...

There are different ethical theories that debate whether we are responsible or not for the different actions that are carried out. This argument is based mainly on the idea as to whether we have free will or if our actions are determined and if we have no choice can we really be responsible if we do not act morally, because we have no choice? These ethical theories of: hard determinism, soft determinism, libertarianism and predestination state varying ideas as whether we have choices and if we are there responsible for the actions made.

People who follow the theory of hard determinism argue that we have no power over the decisions that we make and that all the outcomes of our situations are due to pre-determined actions. Due to their belief that we have no power over our actions, hard determinists suggest that because of this we are then not responsible for the actions made because we have no choice over the outcome. This would then suggest that we do not have any responsibility, however Hume, Sarte and Heisenberg argued against hard determinism because as humans we feel that we have power over our own choices and decisions and that therefore this then suggests that we have the freedom to chose and decide. However Locke used the analogy of the ‘sleeping man’ saying that if a man is placed in a room and while he is sleeping the room s locked, if then the man wakes up but decides to not leave the room, he has not made this choice. Locke argued that instead of the man making the choice he was in fact blinded by the ignorance of his true condition.   Darrow agreed with this stating that we are in fact victims of nature and are determined by the way we are brought up by; family, friends and the society around them, suggesting that because we don’t have the free will to choose, that we no longer posses any freedom. Because of this idea we do not posses that freedom we are then no longer...