Nagel presents determinism as “the circumstances before an action determine that it will happen, and rule out any other possibility.” These circumstances including an individual’s sum of experiences, knowledge, etc, all contribute to this. I think this is an accurate view to believe in but I disagree with Nagel’s point that if something was determined to happen because of one’s experiences it is okay. For example, if someone grew up seeing their parents always making poor decisions, it doesn’t justify them making poor choices when they grown up. Every individual needs to think about their choices and need to understand what is morally right and wrong. If we don’t point out someone’s faults they will be inclined to make the same mistake again.
I also really liked Nagel’s idea that “free action is a basic feature of the world, and it can’t be analyzed.” But in theory everything around a person dictates the course of an action whether it be circumstances, prior experiences, or even people around. For example, ask the question why someone would steal just to steal? Clearly it may be something they can’t afford, or they may have just lost their job. But every action has to have some precursor.
I think that if a child sees a parent repeatedly make poor decisions, that if the child ends up making poor decisions, the parents are the ones responsible for this since the child grew up only seeing these bad decisions. Once the child is an adult and continues to make poor decisions, society will blame the adult, even though he/she never learned the different betwen right and wrong and constantly saw the “wrong” being done. Many people say that kids that grow up and commit crimes stem from bad parents and a bad childhood, and I agree with this claim. People do things based on experience, and if the experience is bad, the things that are being done will most likely be bad as well.
There is also a possibility that the child realizes how wrong their parent’s actions are and choose to not be like them. I believe the kids have the choice to act the same or be different. I also believe that people are born with at least some knowledge of right or wrong. It might not be as clear as someone who was taught when they were younger what right or wrong was but some aspect of it is still there.
Olivia Carros has things somewhat confused. There is a difference between blaming or holding responsible and explaining a miscreant’s behavior. From the fact that X was not reared by suitable role-models, it does not follow he cannot be held responsible for later patterns. Responsibility is or is not ascribed on the basis of a rather different argument. Determinists in particular should not be bamboozled by the logic, since for them X is not morally responsible whether or not his parents were moral exemplars or otherwise.
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