
Metaphysics. The Problem of Free Will. “surface freedom” Being able to ‘do what you want’ Being free to act, and choose, as you will BUT: what if ‘what you will’ is not under your control?. “free will” Being an agent capable of influencing the world Source of ones own actions
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Being able to ‘do what you want’
Being free to act, and choose, as you will
BUT: what if ‘what you will’ is not under your control?
“free will”
Being an agent capable of influencing the world
Source of ones own actions
Actions and choices are “up-to-us”
What is freedom?Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
HARD DETERMINISTS are incompatibilists who hold that determinism is true
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Support?
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
If determinism is true, then our acts are the consequences of the laws of nature and events in the remote past. But it is not up to us what went on before we were born, and neither is it up to us what the laws of nature are. Therefore the consequences of these things (including our present acts) are not up to us.
Peter van Inwagen, An Essay on Free Will (p. 56)
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
For our actions to be free, it must be the case that, when we act, we could do otherwise than we actually do
This insistence on the ability to do otherwise is often referred to as the “principle of alternate possibilities”
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
To say one ‘could have done otherwise’ is to say that one would have done otherwise had things been different (given a different set of beliefs, desires, etc.)
[classical compatibilist response]
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
The ability to do otherwise is not in fact required for moral responsibility, and so determinism is no threat to free will
As long as we are not constrained, coerced or forced in our actions then we do what we will, and it doesn’t matter whether our wills are determined or not
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Support?
Criticism?
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
A STAFF MOVES A STONE, AND IS MOVED BY A HAND, WHICH IS MOVED BY A MAN - Aristotle, Physics 256a
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Psychic creatures called ‘pre-cogs’ can “see” crimes before they happen, so murderers are apprehended and tried before they commit their crimes (this is done under the “Pre-crime Programme)
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews
1. YES
2. Depends …
Compatibilists (Soft Determinists)
2. YES
Hard Determinists
2. NO
Libertarians
2. YES
1. NO (since FW exists)
(Another position)
1. Maybe …
2. No (doesn’t matter whether Determinism is true or not)
1. Is Determinism true? 2. Can there be Free Will?Dr Lisa Jones University of St Andrews