Philosophy- Free Will

Incompatibilism

the philosophical view that free will and determinism (the idea that all events are necessitated by prior causes and conditions) cannot coexist.

Determinism

the idea that the past brings about exactly one future.

Hard Determinism

Apart of the philosophical idea Incompatibilsim

Because the future is determined by the past we are neither free nor are we responsible

• Principle of Sufficient Reason: Anything that happens, happens for a specific reason.

• Consequence: All events are caused! Even if we do not know what caused them

Indeterminism

Apart of the philosophical idea Incompatibilsim

The past does not determine the future. We are free because our actions are not caused by anything

• The indeterminist believes that we are free because we can sometimes do things which are not caused at all. So when I ask somebody why he did something crazy. The indeterminist would answer: “No reason why I did it. I just did because I can. I made my mind up in the present moment. There are no causes for it that come from my past.”

Libertarianism

Apart of the philosophical idea Incompatibilism

Humans have special causal powers that allow them to cause their actions without being causally determined to do so by the past. Humans are free

Draws distinction between different forms of causality: event and agent

Event Causation

Fully determined by prior causes

Agent Causation

God (agent) causes creation of universe paradigms of free will

Compatibilism

compatibilist believes that all events are caused and that the world is fully determined. However, the compatibilist also believes that a determined world is compatible with being free. We are free as long as our actions are caused in the right way

Traditional Compatibilism

Apart of the philosophical idea Compatibilism

Caused Actions are free as long as they are not forced.

Traditional compatibilism is a form of compatibilism, i.e. they believe that an action can both be caused by events in the past (determined) and be free at the same time.

Basic Idea of Traditional Compatibilism:

An action is free if

(1)The action is caused by the will of the agent

(2) The action is not forced.

The Traditional Compatibilists Approach to decide when actions are forced

The Traditional Compatibilist suggests a simple test to decide whether an action is forced.

• If you perform an action, you should ask yourself whether you could have acted differently than you did act.

• If you say yes, then you were not forced.

• If you say no, then you were forced.

Deep Self Compatibilism

Apart of the philosophical idea Compatibilism

Caused Actions are free as long as are caused by our will

A Traditional Compatibilist holds that we are free if

(a) we perform an action that is caused by our will and if (b) we were not forced to perform the action.

A deep self compatibilist holds that our actions are free only if we act on desires that

a) we ourselves have chosen to have.

b) we identify with. These desires are called authentic desires.