Questions tagged [compatibilism]
The compatibilism tag has no usage guidance.
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Who has defended a non-causal (emanationist) concept of strong emergence, compatible with reductionism?
Often in debates about emergence, an opposition is set up between (strong) emergence and reductionism. These are seen as incompatible alternatives.
In particular, if one believes in downward causation,...
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Is the debate on free will over? [closed]
I've never posted on here but I am interested in philosophy. I think a lot about free will / determinism / compatibilism. I always felt like I have some degree of free will. I know free will is ...
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Why does "being able to do otherwise" not count as having free will?
Hello my question is a relatively simple one. But it is also one that seems to have alot of different complicated answers. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to derive a concise clear answer as to why ...
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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 ...
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Is there a name for this form rejection of the free will vs determinism debate?
I'm familiar with the positions of determinism, free will, and compatibilism. But I recently heard a new position in this domain, and I'm curious if it has a name. The position goes something like ...
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How do I prove an incompatibilist argument wrong?
I found a classical incompatibilist argument that looks that this:
If a person acts of her own free will, then she could have done otherwise
If determinism is true, no one can do otherwise ...
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What are the differences between semi-compatibilism and compatibilism?
If it helps, by "compatibilism" I mean classical compatibilism
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Free will: is reality a record, a game or unpredictable?
If a world is a record (a film), then this scenario does not have conditional rules, i.e., if it can be implemented as a computer program, it will not have "if ... then ..." commands.
If a world is a ...
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Can you objectively determine if a given system has free will (according to compatibilism)?
Given some system, can you objectively determine if it has free will? In particular, you can examine the system to any extent that you want, but you are told nothing about its purpose.
If so, what is ...
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Can someone explain Compatibilism to me?
Here is the definition of Free will:
Free Will: Ability to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.
and that of Determinism:
Determinism: All events are completely ...
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Domain of free will in OUR physical system
When we speak of "free will" we often imply it to be "a particular sort of capacity of rational agents to choose a course of action from among various alternatives". This capacity is contained by our ...
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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 ...
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What is the difference between hard determinism and compatibilism, under the assumption of physicalism?
(For the purposes of this question, I am assuming that some form of physicalism holds.)
When I read about hard determinism and compatibilism, it struck me that they seem to be placing different ...
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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 ...
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Can being lame and repose in a chair not imply Compatibilism?
Source: p 83, Philosophy: A Complete Introduction (2012) by Prof Sharon Kaye (MA PhD in Philosophy, U. Toronto)
Likewise, if I tie you to a chair, we say that you are unfree because there is an ...
user8572
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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)?
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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 ...
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How do compatibilists handle brainwashing?
Compatabilism is one approach to the problem of freewill in a casually closed world. If a person is free to choose among several possible courses of action, doesn't this violate the laws of causality? ...
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Free Will in Psychiatry
I have a conundrum: If a psychiatric patient who cannot distinguish between dream and reality believes that each night a stranger comes and cuts their arm off, and subsequently asks for their real arm ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
JNat♦
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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 ...
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