Freewill: If I control/determine my will
Determinism: Every effect is the result of some cause, which itself is the effect of some cause (ultimately determined by God or nature, i.e., the laws of the universe)
Freedom
• Having a freewill
• Being able to act as one chooses
• Having a freewill and being able to act as one chooses
Either:
• The universe is deterministic
• The universe is not deterministic
The options:
1) Determinism is true, and we are free. In other words, freedom and determinism are compatible.
2) Determinism is true, but it is incompatible with freedom. We are not free.
3) There is indeterminacy, and we are free.
4) There is indeterminacy, but we are not free.
Compatibilism
• Combines freedom and determinism
• Determinism is required for freedom and moral responsibility
• Acting involves determining the world in some way
• A person is free when her actual or possible volitions/desires are or would be translated into action
• Only if something does or would impede this relation between volition/desire and action is she not free (if she is constrained)
• Determinism allows us to predict how others will act
Questions for discussion/consideration
“[S]uppose a Man be carried, whilst fast asleep, into a Room, where is a Person he longs to see and speak with; and be there locked fast in, beyond his Power to get out: he awakes, and is glad to find himself in so desirable Company, which he stays willingly in, i.e. prefers his stay to going away.”
1) What do you think about Locke’s scenario? Is such a person free? Why (not)?
2) Suppose human actions are causally necessitated in the way that Ayer admits is possible, and suppose that scientists are now capable of accurately predicting some humans’ behaviour. If these scientists accurately predict someone’s behaviour, in what sense is it true (as Ayer suggests) that s/he could have acted otherwise?
3) What does Stace say about the kleptomaniac and freewill? Do...