Category: Free Will
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I’m Free! Some Thoughts on Compatibilism
Backpacking solo in California's Sierra Nevada range some years ago, I had occasion to exult: "I'm free!" What did I mean? I meant that I was doing what I wanted to do as I wanted to do it. I was not subject to any external or internal impediments, or any external or internal compulsions. An example…
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Free Will Again: A Tension in Philoponus’ Doxastic Network
Near the end of Thursday night's symposium, Philoponus, animated but not rendered irrational by the prodigious quantity of Fat Tire Ale he had consumed, stated that he is really only interested in practical and existential topics in philosophy as opposed to theoretical ones. He is concerned solely with questions on the order of: How should we live? What…
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The Consequence Argument Against Compatibilism
Is the will free or determined? This is a crude way of posing the traditional problem of free will and determinism. But the traditional problem presupposes that free will and determinism are incompatible. Since this cannot be legitimately presupposed, the fundamental problem is the compatibility problem: Are free will and determinism compatible or incompatible? I…
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Could Freedom of the Will be an Illusion?
Could freedom of the will in the strong or unconditional 'could have done otherwise' sense be an illusion? Suppose A and B are incompatible but possible courses of action, and I am deliberating as to whether I should do A or B. (Should I continue with this blogging business, or devote more time to less…
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Weak and Strong Readings of ‘Could Have Done Otherwise’
Determinism is the view that whatever happens is determined by antecedent conditions under the aegis of the laws of nature. Equivalently, past facts, together with the laws of nature, entail all future facts. It follows that facts before one's birth, via the laws of nature, necessitate what one does now. The necessitation here is causal,…
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Nietzsche on Causa Sui and Free Will
Beyond Good and Evil, sec. 21 (tr. W. Kaufmann): The causa sui is the best self-contradiction that has been conceived so far, it is a sort of rape and perversion of logic; but the extravagant pride of man has managed to entangle itself profoundly and frightfully with just this nonsense. The desire for "freedom of…