Discussed free will today in class (& evil). Basically broke up a version of the Free Will Defense into premises and had discussion after each one. Looked something like this on the handout:
But any possible world in which there are creatures with free will is better than any possible world in which there are no such creatures
This is a really controversial premise, but let’s try to motivate it. Imagine a world full of puppies, bunnies, and kitties, but without any human beings. No hatred, but no love either. No murder, but no self-sacrifice. Is such a world better than one in which we have suffering? I’m tempted to say no. Better to have the evil if it brings with it such beautiful possibilities.
Seems like this is true: if God couldn’t have done better than to create this world, then -- given that the only other option (not creating at all) seems clearly worse than creating something -- seems like God’s justified in creating a world with evil.
But, for all we know, there are no possible worlds in which there are creatures with free will that are also evil-free
This is a mega-controversial premise. This is where the question of transworld depravity comes up. Is it really the case that any possible world in which creatures have free will is a possible world in which there’s also evil?
Note: this doesn’t require all evil (moral and natural) to be causally linked to the use of free will. Perhaps in order for agents to exercise genuine free will there needs to be real risks (like death), or perhaps we need to be able to see how our actions can affect others (cause them great suffering). This makes the premise a bit more plausible, but it’s still tough!
Thus, for all we know, the actual world is the best possible world (that is: the world in which higher-order goods like free will are ideally balanced with lower-order goods, like pleasure, and evils, like suffering and death)
We discussed the premises of this argument pretty much the entire time. I took a moment to explain possible worlds (see the picture at the beginning of this post), and gave them the conceptual resources to compare these world to one another. I then ended by handing out a set of cases having to do with the connection between free will and moral responsibility (the other major topic we talked about in class this week). Here's the last such case (taken from real life), that I'll end with. Discuss as you like in the comments below:
On June 15, 2013, according to authorities and trial testimony, Couch was witnessed on surveillance video stealing two cases of beer from a Walmart store, driving with seven passengers in his father's Ford F-350 pickup truck, and speeding (70 MPH in a designated 40 MPH zone). Three hours after the incident, he had a blood-alcohol content of 0.24, three times the legal limit for adult drivers in Texas. Couch also tested positive for Valium. Approximately an hour after the beer theft, Couch was driving his father's truck at 70 MPH on a dark, rural road where motorist Breanna Mitchell's sport utility vehicle had stalled. Hollie Boyles and her daughter Shelby, who lived nearby, had come out to help her, as had passing youth minister Brian Jennings. Couch's truck swerved off the road and into Mitchell's car, then plowed into Jennings' parked car, which in turn hit an oncoming Volkswagen Beetle. The truck then flipped over and hit a tree. Mitchell, Jennings, and both Hollie and Shelby Boyles were killed, while Couch and his seven teen passengers (none wearing seat belts) survived, as did the two children in Jennings' car and the two people in the Volkswagen.
Miller said Couch's parents gave him 'freedoms no young person should have.' He called Couch a product of 'affluenza,' where his family felt that wealth bought privilege and there was no rational link between behavior and consequences. He said Couch got whatever he wanted. As an example, Miller said Couch's parents gave no punishment after police ticketed the then-15-year-old when he was found in a parked pickup with a passed out, undressed, 14-year-old girl.
Lawyers for Couch, 16, had argued that the teen's parents should share part of the blame for the crash because they never set limits for the boy and gave him everything he wanted. According to CNN affiliate WFAA, a psychologist called by the defense described Couch as a product of "affluenza."
Divorce. For some people a seven letter, happy, word to be placed alongside others like Rapture, Divorce. For some people a seven letter, happy, word to be placed alongside others like Rapture, Delight, Elation or Ecstasy.
I interviewed a great guy called Davey Johnstone for my Sunday newspaper column. He has played guitar on all Elton John’s hits and still takes to the stage with him 45 years later. Davey told me a story about playing live with John Lennon, but the words Lennon used, while really funny were, shall we say, just rude. I didn’t want to lose the story but I couldn’t possibly use the original quote in a family paper. So I used words like “groupie” and “girls” instead.
On Sunday morning at nine a.m. I ended my radio show and handed over to my colleague. “Here with the BBC News is Sue Kinnear.” There was a gap, so long that I wondered whether to jump in, and then she started speaking. “Terry Wogan has died this morning at the age of 77.”
Four weeks ago, just before the end of the year, I sat down as I always do and compiled a list of my favourite albums of the year. I never let anyone else see the list as it seems to me that would be a bit arrogant, as if my opinion counts for anything. Tastes vary, and although I listen to every new album that comes out the end of year list is just for me.
Morris Louis was a leading figure of Color Field painting, known for his experimental methods in which he manipulated the surface flow of the medium to realize vibrant and mesmerizing compositions. Moving away from the concurrent trends of action painting, Louis became part of the Post-Painterly Abstraction movement that aligned him within a generation of artists that included Kenneth Noland, Barnett Newman and Helen Frankenthaler.