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Dinesh

Dinesh club

Posted: 11 Feb 2023

Taken: 11 Feb 2023

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The Philosophy of Schopenhauer •
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Determinism

Determinism
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 Dinesh
Dinesh club
In the introduction to his ‘Four Essays on Liberty’ edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/5163557/mod_resource/content/1/Isaiah%20Berlin%20-%20Liberty_%20Incorporating%20Four%20Essays%20on%20Liberty%20%20-Oxford%20University%20Press%20%282002%29.pdf Isaiah Berlin has argued, convincingly to my mind, that regardless of whether determinism is correct or incorrect (and although he does not mention Schopenhauer, his formulation on p. xiii of the doctrine he is discussing is precisely that employed by Schopenhauer) its consistent adoption would require us to expunge from our minds, and from our language, all such existing concepts as moral responsibility and choice, praise, blame, encouragement, fairness, justice, equality, merit and the like; and moreover to expunge from all our public relationships and institutions, as well as from our private behaviour, all activities which rest on the use of any of these concepts. Berlin goes on to assert that no advocate of determinism has ever faced up to what this involves. It is clear that he doubts tht the task is even determinately conceivable, let alone practically possible. He also seems to doubt whether, if it could be carried out, such a programme would be compatible with our remaining human. ‘Of course,’ he writes, ‘ the fact that there have been, and no doubt may still be, plenty of thinkers, even in our own culture, who at one and the same time profess belief in determinism, and yet to not feel in the least inhibited from dispensing . . . moral praise and blame freely, and pointing out to others how they should have chosen, shows only, if I am right, that some normally lucid and self-critical thinkers are at times liable to confusion. My case, in other words, amounts to making explicit that most men do not doubt -- namely that it is not rational both to believe that choices are caused, and to consider men as deserving of reproach or indignation (or their opposites) for choosing to act or refrain as they do. ~ Page 236

THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCHOPENHAUER
2 years ago. Edited 2 years ago.

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