Issue date: 3/5/08 Section: News

Grant Sterling presented his paper during EIU's philosophy colloquium Tuesday afternoon in Coleman Hall. (John Bailey/The Daily Eastern News)

Whether or not people are morally responsible for their actions has been argued since before the word even "philosophy" existed.

More than two millennia later, Eastern philosophy professor Grant Sterling believes he has the appropriate response.

"Moral responsibility is a side issue," he said during the philosophy department colloquium held Tuesday in Coleman Hall.

In his paper, "Doing the Impossible Right Thing," Sterling argued that the more pertinent question is whether morality exists at all.

To answer that, the existence of free will needs to be determined because free will is necessary for morality to exist in the first place, he said.

During his presentation, Sterling used three hypothetical situations to explain the importance of free will in morality.

Sterling described a situation in which he was asked to fly like Superman to catch a man who fell off of a skyscraper. He then described a situation where he had to save a girl who had drowned before he had heard of the problem. The third situation involved Sterling passing out during a bank robbery and a police officer later commending him for doing the right thing by staying "prone."

Sterling used those examples to illustrate how someone cannot be morally obligated to do something impossible. An action is neither right nor wrong if the person had no control over the situation.

"A decent moral theory has to accept these two principles," Sterling said.

Sterling's paper argued that free will is a necessity for morality.

"It seems at first so simple," said senior philosophy major Jenna Smith. "It gets really complicated, really fast."

During the presentation, Sterling attempted to refute claims that free will and determinism - the belief that events are set to happen before they occur - are compatible.

"If determinism is true, than morality, for all intents and purposes, ceases to be true," Sterling said.

Free will requires that at least one alternative exists, Sterling added.

During his presentation Sterling briefly touched on the topic of quantum mechanics and morality. Quantum mechanics is the study of the relationship between energy quanta and matter.

"If physics could prove (free will) is impossible, we should abandon morality," Sterling said.



Josh Van Dyke can be reached at 581-7942 or at jnvandyke@eiu.edu.

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