Psychological and Scientific Libertarianism

Carl Rogers

This support for libertarianism from psycology comes from a school of thought called Humanism.

One of the early founders of Humanism was Carl Rogers.

He said that people were living in the present and have the potential to respond freely to their current situations.

They have their own ideas and thoughts about life. However, these can change as a result of the pressures of society or people such that a child will change their ideas in order to achieve acceptance or to fit in. Therefore they forget their own free willed thoughts and feelings and instead embrace those of their parents and peers. They are essentially rejecting their own thoughts and ideas and becoming a determinist robot.

He said that by getting back in touch with our own feelings and acting on them, we can achieve self-actualisation. He said that this was a personal journey for everyone. By achieving self-actualisaiton, they can brea the chains of determinism. Rogers believed that self-actualisation fully was when the ideal self (who they would like to be) becomes the same as their true self.

When they achieve self-actualisation, they can fully achieve their full potential.

Scientific Determinism

Despite the fact that science appears to support determinism. Developments in neuroscience has shown that a part of the brain called the parietal cortex is reponsible for freewill. Through electric impulses, the brain can make predictions about bodily movements but sends specific instrucctiosn to the premotor cortex. The premotor cortex will send signals back to the parietal cortex. Sirigiu said that you need both the parietal and promotor cortex to generate intention. But the most important part waas that the parietal cortex chooses from a variety of possible movemetns the one to send to the premotor cortex. Therefore this shows that because your brain can choose between certain actiosn, there is freewill.

Patrick Haggard said that Sirigu's reserach 'breaks new ground on the study of freewill'.

Randy Jirtle and Robert Waterland have also show that small changes in a mother's diet can effect her child. The instructions that change these are called epigenetic switches and are sensitve to the environemnts of the gene carrier. These suggests that through our choices, we can effect future generations.

Implications of Libertarianism

There is moral value in punishing or blaming someone for their actions because it is within their own free willed moral control.

This is why Satre said that it was a curse for humanity because total freewill comes with total moral responsibility.

The idea that each person is morally responsible for their actions in seen in the UK legal courts in what is known as 'rational coice theory'.

If you accept freewill. the idea of normative ethics is useful because it means that you are free to choose to do wrong/right If you are not free, it is not useful becuase you can't help not following it even if you acknowledge that it might be useful.