Hard Determinism

Hard determinism derives from the observation that everything in the world happens as a result of cause and effect. Nothing happens that has not had a prior even leading up to it. This is universal causation. Just as a train has to follow the direction of the rails, so is the future fixed and unchangeable because of the events that have predetermined it.

There are 3 types of determinism that contribute overall as hard determinism; philosophical, scientific and psychological.

Philosophical determinism was developed by John Locke who famously used the analogy of the man in the room to illustrate the existence of hard determinism. A man is in a room which he does not realize is locked from the outside. Believing he had freewill, he chooses to sat inside the room, but is ignorant of the fact that the door is in fact locked. Locke said that in a similar way. we too do not realise that we have in fact no freewill-we are ignorant of it. This lead him to say the famous line 'freewill is an illusion'. This was supported by William James who described it as the 'iron block universe'.

Scientific determinism says that it is the existence of DNA and genes that confirms the existence of hard determinism.

Our characteristics and behaviour are predetermined because the are given to us by our parents through genes.

Not only this, but hard determinism states that because of prior events being predetermined, resulting in an outcome, we are not held responsible for our actions, unlike the view of libertarianism.

In this sense, we can see that the boys who killed James Bulger were predetermine to do it because of the films they watched and neglect from their parents.

Referring back to scientific determinism and perhaps going forwards to psychological determinism, many people are said to have the 'warrior' gene which results in such examples of extreme violence. Due to this, hard determinism believes that it is not their fault, but rather because of gene.

Lastly, psychological determinism says that we have only been conditioned. Pavlov was a psychologist who did experiments with dogs on conditioning.

HE found that the dogs produced saliva at the ringing of a bell, regardless of if there was food present, because they had been conditioned to believe that food appear. Skinner also carried out similar tests which produced the same results. Psychological determinism says that our human responses ad reactions are just those that have been conditioned. For example, through learning that one type of behaviour is good because a parent may reward you as a child.

In a nutshell, three types of determinism make up hard determinism which says that every choice a human makes is not out of freewill but rather because of predetermined causes. Once these are in place, then there is no way that the future conclusion can be altered.

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