Determinism According To P. F. Strawson

1. P. F. Strawson sees the free will debate a clash between “optimists” and ‘pessimist” States these positions.

According to P. F. Strawson an optimist is a person who believes that the fact that they know does not prove determinism to be false and that the fact that they know doesn’t threaten determinism. Optimists are those who acknowledge the existence of freedom in this sense is compatible with the truth of determinism. The optimist believe that the facts as we know them don't show determinism to be false, and provide an adequate basis for our moral practices (e.g., praise/blame/resentment).Then there is pessimists, who are the total opposite of an optimist. Pessimists are people who believe that freedom actually weakens determinism.
A pessimist admits that the fact as we know them include the existence of freedom. A pessimist believes that the fact as they know them do not show determinism to be false, but they do not provide an adequate basis for the moral practices in question, so they must go beyond them to find an adequate basis for these practices. They believe if people were to act freely then they are able to act differently which undermines optimist’s determinism. A pessimist may ask a question like “But why does freedom of this sense justify blame?”

2. What is a “reactive attitude”? Give examples and attempt a general characterization.

Reactive attitudes is basically another way to say a reaction.
“Reactive attitudes are essentially natural human reactions to the good or ill will or indifference of others towards us, as displayed in their attitude and actions” (Strawson, 635). Some example of a reactive attitude would be resentment and gratitude. They are both emotions, they are understood as feelings rather than states of belief. “Non-detatched attitudes and reactions of people directly involved in transactions with each other; of the attitudes and reactions of offended parties and beneficiaries; of such things as gratititude, resentment, forgiveness, love and hurt feelings” (Strawson,633). For an example if person accidentally pushed you because they were recklessly trying to get past to see someone else, your feelings of resentment might be somewhat reduced, but they are unlikely to go completely. But if a person saw that you are about to fall , and they run to help you and it turns out that they pushed you by accident while trying to help you, the feelings of blaming that person will be diminished, it depends on the nature of the case. If they had been rushing to try and help you to prevent you from falling, and had fallen into you they most likely will diminish and you will then have a positive reactive attitude instead of a negative reactive
attitude.

3. Why, according to Strawson, are not blameworthy when we cause harm by accident?

According to Strawson people are not blameworthy when they cause harm by an accident because their intentions was not to bring harm to the other it would be morally inadmissible to blame someone for a mistake.
“To this list they are constrained to add other factors which, without exactly being limitations of freedom, may also make moral condemnation or punishment inappropriate or mitigate their force: as some forms of ignorance, mistake or accident. And the general reason why moral condemnation or punishment are inappropriate.”(Strawson, 632). For an example, if a person saw that you are about to fall , and they run to help you and it turns out that they pushed you by accident while trying to help you the feelings of blaming that person will be diminished, it depends on the nature of the case. If they had been rushing to try and help you to prevent you from falling, and had fallen into you they most likely will diminish. Example stated in the book “If someone treads on my hand accidently, while trying to help me, the pain may be less acute than if he treads on it contemptuous disregard of my existence or with or with a malevolent wish to injure me. But I shall generally feel in the second case a kind and degree of resentment that I shall not feel in the first. If someone’s actions help me to some benefit I desire, the I am benefited in any case; but if he intended them so to benefit me because of his general goodwill towards to me, I shall reasonably feel gratitude which I
should not feel at all if the benefit was an incidental consequence, unintended or even regretted by him, of some plan of action with a different aim”.(Strawson 633)