Open AccessThe Voluntary Nature of Ethical-Moral Behavior in the 21st Century (Or In Any Other): A Personal Perspective
Author(s) -
Tom Spears
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
general medicine and clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2639-4162
DOI - 10.31579/2639-4162/006
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , action (physics) , voluntary action , moral responsibility , free will , determinism , psychology , sociology , epistemology , social psychology , engineering ethics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , agency (philosophy) , artificial intelligence , computer science , engineering
Increasingly in the modern research world there are questions raised about actions taken by academics who do now have full control of their choice of action. In the laboratory setting, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and even junior professors are often compelled to follow courses of action that are determined by their supervisors or senior members of their departments. So the question of moral determinism derives from the more fundamental question of what actions are voluntary, and to what degree — a question that has informed the thought of philosophers as far back as Aquinas and Duns Scotus. What follows is a personal reflection on currents in this line of inquiry.