Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Compatibilism About Moral Responsibility

S is morally responsible for sinning even if S* caused S to sin.

Matt. 18:6 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Proceeding via Arminian rules of logical inference -

The dictionary defines cause as:

1. a person or thing that acts, happens, or exists in such a way that some specific thing happens as a result; the producer of an effect:

The common man understands cause to mean this.

This Bible was written to the common man.

The Bible teaches compatibilism.

5 comments:

  1. Paul: S is morally responsible for sinning even if S* caused S to sin.

    Vytautas: Do you mean that S is morally responsible for sinning even if S caused S* to sin because the person who caused the other moral agent to sin is morally responsible?

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  2. Also is not Compatibilism and Moral Responsibility a better title than Compatibilism About Moral Responsibility ?

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  3. Hi Paul,

    Here's the second defintion for cause:

    1. a person or thing that acts, happens, or exists in such a way that some specific thing happens as a result; the producer of an effect: You have been the cause of much anxiety. What was the cause of the accident?
    2. the reason or motive for some human action: The good news was a cause for rejoicing.


    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cause

    In context, #2 is more approprate, because we are talking about human action.

    God be with you,
    Dan

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  4. "Causes" does not necessarily mean "causally determines". If I am in the Garden of Forking Paths, and see a banana tree down one path and a strawberry tree down the other, I may prefer strawberries, and claim(legitimately) that the presence of the strawberry "caused" me to choose its path. That does not negate my ability to choose the other path.

    Leading someone to sin is wrong, but that does not mean you can causally determine their sin, and make it inevitable. "Cause" might better be rendered "influence".

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