PHILOSOPHY CLASS-LONG PAPER Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

PHILOSOPHY CLASS-LONG PAPER - Essay Example The dead can bear no responsibility for their actions. At best, Smith is a zombie, under the control of the scientist. An animated corpse is simply an instrument being used to fulfill the will of the master. Within this system, the scientist is fully alive. He feels pleasure by overcoming displeasures, which in this case would be technical difficulties with his zombie and his chip that prevent Smith from carrying out his master’s will. With every victory over Smith, the master (the scientist) stimulates his will to power and therefore is fully alive. The scientist follows all the rules of Master Morality, and is able to do this with a good conscience. Smith can’t subscribe to the Slave Morality because, ostensibly, he does not know he is being subjugated. He cannot see his master as evil, because he is unaware that his mind has been manipulated by an outside person. Therefore, he bears no responsibility for his actions while under the influence of the neural chip. Holba ch: Causal Determinism: All Events are Caused Holbach states that because we are parts of the greater whole, which is nature, we cannot think, perceive or act without nature influencing us. In order to be free of nature, we would have to be free of â€Å"physical sensibility† which means coma, or death. ... Smith does not, even though it does no obvious harm. As a result, Smith, while under control of the chip, has no â€Å"actual essence† (Holbach) and is not truly alive. Under this system, a person is punished or rewarded due to his acting or not acting on his motives, which we all carry within us. Smith’s volition to act or not act is compromised by the chip, so he should not be punished or rewarded for any actions. â€Å"To be free is to yield to the necessary motives he carries within himself† (Holbach, 113). Smith’s processing of what his motives are, and what to do or not do about them, is controlled by the scientist. It is my position that the scientist alone experiences Holbach’s limited freedom. Hume: On Knowing and the Liberty of Spontaneity Hume defines the will as â€Å"when we knowingly give rise to any new motion of our body, or a new perception of our mind† (57). If Smith’s thoughts are influenced by a neural chip, then Sm ith’s actions, which are directed by this chip, are not mindful actions, but compulsions that have been generated by the chip’s impulses. Smith acts unknowingly, therefore he has no will. Hume’s main argument states that â€Å"2. All mental events (thoughts, feelings, etc.) and actions are constantly conjoined with some other (preceding) type of event, and the mind passes from a consideration of one to a consideration of the other (class notes, italics mine). Smith’s mind is altered by the chip, thus altering the process of consideration from E to F. This makes for a false causal relation in terms of the will. If causation depends on a determination of the mind, then Smith’s mind is being determined by the scientist. There ends up being a