Well, against my better judgment, I've spent way too much time today reading the excellent blog The Garden of Forking Paths. That's largely in connection to Kevin's comments on compatibilism. Now I'll admit up front that while I've read a bit on the compatibilism issue, I'm anything but well versed on it. (Meaning I don't feel confident to say I know all the positions or arguments that people tend to assume everyone is familiar with) As I've mentioned before, my own views for good or ill are fairly influenced by Nietzsche's critiques of the whole debate. Having said all that though, a comment on today's entry at the Garden seemed rather interesting and relevant to LDS theology.
In "Free Will, Praise, and Blame" [Smart] argues that (1) we wrongly believe we have metaphysical freedom, and (2) that any non-consequentialist form of blame is irrational, and that we should GRADE people instead of JUDGING them.
Why is this interesting? Well it seems to me that most Mormon philosophers who adopt the libertarian free will position do so from various arguments of responsibility. i.e. that I am in some strong sense responsible for my acts otherwise God judging me for my acts judges immorally. Smart apparently offers and argument that what counts isn't judgment but grading. I found a fairly good summary of Smart's position by Richard Arneson called "The Smart Theory of Moral Responsibility and Desert." I'm still reading it so I probably shouldn't be posting on it yet. However it seems already to offer some interesting comments that are perhaps relevant to those arguing that the LDS notion of degrees of glory is a logical implication from a certain perspective in the free will debate. i.e. that the judgment argument against determinists fails within Mormonism precisely because we don't have a simple judgment. Instead we have a grading based upon a strong sense of consequentialism.
I'll let everyone make up their own mind. Perhaps those parallels which struck me are inappropriate.
According to Smart’s version, one is morally responsible for a choice one makes just in case praising or blaming, rewarding or punishing one for making the choice would produce good consequences by altering the future behavior of oneself or others.
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