Free Will and Moral Responsibility | AQA A-Level Religious Studies (7062)
Free Will and Moral Responsibility
- 56 questions
- 4 subtopics
- Component 1 Section B: ethics and religion
- Component 1
The conditions of responsibility, the dispute between libertarianism, hard determinism and compatibilism, and what follows for reward and punishment..
It covers moral Responsibility, Determinism and Punishment, free Will as a Condition of Responsibility, libertarianism and Hard Determinism and reward, Punishment and Determinism.
Sample questions from Free Will and Moral Responsibility
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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Moral Responsibility, Determinism and Punishment
Why does hard determinism conclude that moral responsibility is impossible?
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Because if all human actions are causally determined by prior causes, agents could not have acted otherwise, making free will an illusion and removing the basis for moral responsibility. -
Moral Responsibility, Determinism and Punishment
Under what conditions is punishment morally justified according to the concept of moral responsibility?
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Punishment is only justified if the agent freely chose to perform a wrong action and understood its moral significance. -
Free Will as a Condition of Responsibility
What does it mean for an agent to understand the difference between right and wrong in the context of moral responsibility?
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It means the agent must have the cognitive and moral capacity to recognise that their action is morally significant and to judge its moral status. -
Free Will as a Condition of Responsibility
How does the free will condition for moral responsibility connect to debates about determinism?
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If all actions are causally determined, then the free will condition for moral responsibility may never be satisfied, since agents could not have done otherwise. -
Libertarianism and Hard Determinism
What reasoning leads hard determinists to deny the existence of free will?
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They conclude that because free will is incompatible with determinism, and determinism is true, free will does not exist. -
Libertarianism and Hard Determinism
What do libertarianism and hard determinism have in common, and how do they differ?
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Both are incompatibilist positions, agreeing that free will and determinism cannot coexist, but they disagree on which is true, libertarians affirm free will while hard determinists affirm determinism. -
Reward, Punishment and Determinism
Why does libertarianism provide support for desert-based reward and punishment?
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Libertarianism affirms that agents could have done otherwise, establishing genuine moral responsibility and thereby justifying rewards and punishments based on desert. -
Reward, Punishment and Determinism
What happens to praise and blame if moral responsibility does not exist?
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They become meaningless, moral language is reduced to mere descriptions of behaviour rather than genuine evaluations of character.
The 4 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Moral Responsibility, Determinism and Punishment | Recall questions on the conditions for moral responsibility, libertarianism, hard determinism and compatibilism, and on what each view means for the justice of reward and retributive punishment. | 18 |
| Free Will as a Condition of Responsibility | Recall questions on the two conditions, why free will is necessary and what understanding right from wrong requires. | 11 |
| Libertarianism and Hard Determinism | Recall questions on what libertarians claim about authentic choice and on the definition of hard determinism. | 13 |
| Reward, Punishment and Determinism | Recall questions on what must hold for reward and punishment to be just, and on how hard determinism undermines that justification. | 14 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
AQA A-Level Religious Studies Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 3,683 questions with their answers.