Philosophy of Religion

Philosophy of Religion

An Evaluation of the Argument by Ishtiyaque Haji on the Incompatibility of Moral Obligations and Causal Determinism

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Ruhullah Mowahedi 1
Reza Berenjkar 2
1 PhD Holder in Islamic philosophy, Higher Education Complex of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Al-Mustafa International University, Qom, Iran
2 Professor, Faculty of Jurisprudence and Philosophy, College of Farabi, University of Tehran, Qom, Iran
10.22059/jpht.2022.346271.1005917
Abstract
Emphasizing an already unattended part of the free will question and in the past two decades, Ishtiyaque Haji has argued that causal determinism challenges not only moral responsibility but also moral obligations. To this end, he tries to defend the incompatibility of moral obligations with causal determinism by proving that moral obligations have alternative possibilities and then showing its conflict with causal determinism. The article at hand examines his viewpoint to proving the possibility of strong alternatives for moral obligations – as an important factor for the preservation of the validity of his argument – and tries to show that his claim about the moral obligations’ lack of need to ultimate origination is an incorrect or at least unreasonable factor. It is noteworthy that this criticism only questions his argument method; therefore, it not only does not pose a problem for his main claim about the incompatibility of moral obligations and causal determinism, but also strengthens it.
Keywords
Ishtiyaque Haji
moral obligations
causal determinism
strong alternatives
ultimate origination
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Philosophy of Religion
Volume 19, Issue 2
Summer 2022
Pages 201-221