Questions tagged [compatibilism]
37 questions
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How can free will in compatibilism be proven?
Having very recently started getting interested in philosophy, I'm still halfway through my first book (Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy, by Simon Blackburn, as recommended in this question).
Before reading it, it was my belief that we…
JNat
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Why do modern materialists tend to favor determinism?
There seems to be no logical link between matter and determinism (or ideal and indeterminism for that matter). And libertarian free will was first articulated by a materialist, Epicurus, and is defended at length in Lucretius's famous poem. The…
Conifold
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Does compatibilism imply that a chess program has free will?
I am puzzled by compatibilism and am trying to understand what it means using a test example. Given that a typical chess program generates several choices, evaluates them with a goal of winning and chooses a specific option, would this imply that it…
Harshavardhan
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Strawson on Free Will: What are the most persuasive challenges to his position?
There are arguments against free will and moral responsibility which rely on strict causal determinism and/or determinism modified by quantum randomness. Criticisms of these views raise doubt as to our ability to adequately measure the incredibly…
Futilitarian
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Philosophers answering "what happens to a society that does not believe in free wıll?"
The Scientific American article, What Happens to a Society That Does Not Believe in Free Wıll?, looks to answer the question from a research perspective and The clockwork universe: is free will an illusion? explains how free will is an…
OrigamiEye
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Dennett vs Sapolsky on free will: A clash over different claims?
On a recent Youtube episode of Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal Daniel Dennett, author and Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University in Massachusetts, discusses his views of Robert Sapolsky's recent work around free will. Sapolsky has…
Futilitarian
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Hume and free will
What exactly does Hume consider acting out of free will/being free? Are those two things even the same to him?
Now, I believed Hume's definition for being free, to be that if you are doing what you want to do, you are free. However, I am doubting…
Dasherman
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Why do most philosophers of religion accept or lean towards a libertarianism conception of free will?
When philosophers at large are surveyed, we observe this distribution (N=1758 [source]. 59.16% accept or lean towards compatibalism; 18.83% accept or lean towards libertarianism; 11.21% accept or lean towards no free will):
But when we filter by…
Lowri
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What would falsify compatibilism?
I'm trying to figure out whether compatibilism (SEP, Wikipedia) is falsifiable, a metaphysic, or something else. One way to get at this is to take a Popperian approach, and ask whether any conceivable observation could prove compatibilism to be…
labreuer
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How do freewill compatibilists define insanity?
Compatabilism is one approach to the problem of freewill in a casually closed world: How to reconcile freewill with a casually determined world (in particular one that follows the laws of physics)?
Incompatibilists hold that freewill cannot exist in…
Alexander S King
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Why do compatibilists believe that whether we act freely is independent of whether or not determinism is true?
I am mainly looking for information based on Dennett's work, I Could Not Have Done Otherwise- So What? because that is the only thing I am familiar with other than D'Holbach, but other works will do fine as well as long as your provide adequate…
Felix
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How far can compatibilism go: God as active creator with perfect foreknowledge and free will
One of the main arguments of compatibilists trying to save free will from God's foreknowledge seems to be that free will is still possible in the face of perfect foreknowledge as long as God only knows what will happen but does not coerce people…
vonjd
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On the Objections to Compatibilism
I was reading An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume, specifically the section titled On Liberty and Necessity (both parts). Hume reconciles liberty with metaphysical necessity by an ingenious argument, which I think is called the…
Cicero
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If Determinism Is True, Is Moral Responsibility Still Intelligible?
Determinism holds that every event is the necessary result of preceding causes and laws of nature.
If all our actions are determined by prior states of the universe—genes, environment, neural chemistry—can we still be meaningfully held responsible…
F. A. Mala
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Defending Pereboom's deliberation-compatibilism from Widerker's objections, conceptualizing "agents" as Turing machines
I am trying to overcome David Widerker's objection to Derk Pereboom's account of rational deliberation. I include both Pereboom's account and Widerker's objection as a reminder/introduction at the end of this post.
In doing this, I began by defining…
Alex Byard
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