Soft Determinism

To be able to capture the entire scope and essence of the soft determinism philosophy, we first need to get to the roots of two other philosophies - free will and determinism. The premises of the philosophy of free will is established upon the foundation of the assumed ability of agents to choose a course of action, such a choice being free from particular and specific types of constraints. The philosophy of determinism, on the other hand, follows that objects in time (events) bound inside a particular paradigm are interrelated by the cause-and-effect phenomenon. This interrelationship is such that a given state of an object or an event is significantly determined by previous states of such object or event. Well, now that we have some idea of what these two cornerstone philosophies, upon which the philosophy of soft determinism is founded, pertain to, let's proceed and find out what soft determinism is all about.

Definition of Soft Determinism

The premises of this philosophy is established on the belief that the conflicting philosophies of free will and determinism are actually compatible with each other. Soft determinism dwells upon the possibility that both free will and determinism can coexist as one by imbibing primary aspects of both together in the form of a third philosophy of soft determinism. To put it simply, this philosophy points out that we, human beings, are both bound by determination and possess a degree of freedom of will at the same time. Freedom, here, refers moral freedom or the freedom to choose or not to choose to perform an action, under pressure or coercion, that is immoral in nature. This school of thought maintains that unless there is an element of determinism present in the thought or action of a person, there can be no self-determination which is essential for sticking to one's free will and acting likewise.

Soft Determinism vs Hard Determinism

Before we proceed to differentiate soft determinism from hard determinism, let's take a quick look at what the latter is all about. Hard determinism can be called the most extreme form of the determinism psychology. This philosophy completely rejects the existence of free will and is founded on the belief that for a person to be held morally responsible for his actions, such person must have the option of choosing between alternative courses of actions with relation to the given situation. On this basis, the person can be questioned as to why he/she chose to follow the course he/she did and not go for any of the other available alternatives.

In the absence of such alternative choices, the philosophy of hard determinism maintains that it is unfair to hold any person morally responsible for the acts committed by him/her. This way, hard determinism leaves very little room for arguing ethics and follows along the lines of moral nihilism. Now, the chief point of distinction between the two forms of determinism lies in this contention over moral choices. In soft determinism, the factors that lead to a moral choice is left to be analyzed after an action is committed and such analysis is based upon the character and intention of the person committing the act.

Adhering to this factor of moral responsibility given the combined underlying mechanisms of free will and determinism at work, the moral responsibility of a person committing a said act is judged after taking into consideration whether the person had the choice to opt for a different, alternative course of action in the given situation (the situation that drove him to commit the act in question). The justification for a third party reaction - be it reward, punishment, praise or blame - is based upon an analysis of this moral responsibility of the subject. To put it simply, the primary concern here is to judge the extent to which his attitude will undergo transformation when subject to such reaction. This is an important factor that will determine whether or not he will understand his moral responsibility when faced with a similar situation in the future. That's soft determinism for you.