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sume that the principle of insufficient reason applies to whether determinism
is true or false.
9.1 STEP 1. TWO INDEPENDENT QUESTIONS OF THE THREAT
FROM DETERMINISM
It is important to realize that determinism as such has no threatening consequences
of the kind people sometimes worry about. Only belief in determinism
does. If we fear that determinism will reshape our societies,
and in particular invalidate the notion of personal responsibility and our
practices of praise and blame, it is important that these changes will not,
strictly speaking, happen because determinism is true, but because people
in general and policymakers in particular believe that it is true, and act in
ways they perceive as coherent with its truth.
Though this point is rather obvious, one sometimes gets the feeling
that some tend to overlook it. Consider again Berlin’s classical statement,
which was quoted in the previous chapter:
“There are some terms which, if we took determinism seriously, we
would no longer use, or use in only in some peculiar sense, as we
speak of witches or the Olympian Gods. Such notions as justice, equity,
desert, fairness would certainly have to be re-examined if they were to
be kept alive at all and not relegated to the role of discarded figments
[…] If determinism is valid, this is a price that we must pay” (Berlin
2002: 15).
Berlin here begins by suggesting that “if we took determinism seriously”,
we would no longer use certain terms. He then adds that “this is a price
we must pay” if determinism is “valid.” It is important to note, however,
that the question of validity is neither necessary nor sufficient for the
changes Berlin fears. All that is needed for the changes to occur is that we
believe that determinism is true and act as if it’s true. This we may do
even if determinism turns out to be false.
We thus need to distinguish between two types of questions:
Q1: Is determinism true or false?
Q2: Is determinism believed to be true or false?