Compatibility
Compatibility
What do we mean when we say that things are compatible?
It can mean they complement each othe
It can mean they are part of a set
It can mean they are possible together.
Philosophers use the last meaning.
Figuring out what things are compatible is useful because it tells us what the possibilities are.
With the issue of free will we are asking what types of statements can be true without being inconsistent.
Human agents sometimes have free will
Our universe operates according to determinism
Are these two statements consistent? (compatible)
Several possibilities
1. we have free will, but the universe is not deterministic
2. the world is deterministic and we don’t have free will
3. we do not have free will and the world is not deterministic.
If we do not think that free will and determinism are compatible then we have ruled out the idea that we have free will and the world is deterministic.
Determinism
For our purposes we will be discussing determinism as it relates to laws of nature.
Laws of nature can be understood as making things fall, but philosophers understand laws of nature as simply telling us the way things will always happen. The law of gravity for example just tells us how bodies will act under certain conditions, they don’t actually make gravity work.
Determinism requires a belief in these types of exceptionless laws.
Determinism: the past and the laws of nature necessitate a unique feature.
This means that given what has occu
ed in the last, and given the laws of nature, the future is fixed in the way that it will occur. Everything that will happen next week, next month or next year is already fixed.
Causal Determinism
So who has decided this chain of events?
Perhaps God, but not necessarily.
If there are deterministic laws of nature , then certain circumstances will always lead to certain events, a bit like cause and effect.
For this reason, this type of determinism is known as causal determinism.
“Every event has a cause”
This thesis needs examination.
The Principal of Universal Causation was long considered to be the same as determinism.
They aren’t actually equivalent however, since it is possible to think that determinism is false but universal causation is true. We might consider that each event does in fact have a cause, but that the future is not fixed by the past and by laws of nature.
Probabilistic causation for example, says that causes make the effect more likely rather than necessary. Or we might say an agent can cause an event without having been determined to do so.
Is the Universe Deterministic?
Scientists doubt this. Quantum-level phenomena do not appear to be deterministic. This is not due to our misunderstanding of their behavior, but to the randomness of their behavior.
Scientists believe that laws of nature do not fix specific futures, but they can tell us what most likely will happen.
However, those who believe determinism is false do not need to believe that nothing is determined. If we understand determinism as the stating that everything is determined, to deny this is not to say that nothing is determined. Some things can still be determined without everything falling into that category.
Different kinds of determinism
Logical determinism: based on the idea that every proposition about the future is already true or false.
This is not taling about laws of nature, but rather the truth value of propositions about the future.
Theological determinism- this concerns divine foreknowledge. If God exists and has complete and infallible foreknowledge regarding the future, then it seems that we are determined to the actions we perform. Can we then have acted otherwise?
Compatibilism
Compatibilism is the thesis about the relationship between free will and determinism.
Human agents sometimes have free will
Our universe operates according to determinism
IF determinism is true, the future is fixed. Compatibilism does not see this as a threat.
Even if everything were fixed, we can still sometimes be free.
Soft determinism
This view says that determinism is true and we do have free will.
There are strong reasons to believe the world does operate deterministically. However this does not detract from our ability to act freely.
Free will can co exist with determinism and may actually require determinism.