Abstract
Although free will compatibilists are typically focused on arguing that determinism is compatible with free will, most compatibilists also think that indeterminism is compatible with free will too-and I am one of those compatibilists. In this chapter, I will look at this issue from the perspective of a compatibilist view I have defended elsewhere (Causation and Free Will, Oxford University Press 2016): a view that takes our freedom to be a function of the actual causal histories of our behavior. In the first part of the chapter I argue that, assuming this view, it follows that indeterminism is in fact compatible with free will. Still, the assumption of indeterminism gives rise to some novel and interesting questions concerning the nature of indeterministic causation. The second part of the chapter is concerned with motivating and discussing those questions.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Free Will |
Subtitle of host publication | Historical and Analytic Perspectives |
Publisher | Springer International Publishing |
Pages | 205-227 |
Number of pages | 23 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9783030611361 |
ISBN (Print) | 9783030611354 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 13 2021 |
Keywords
- Causal history
- Compatibilist view of free will
- Freedom
- Indeterminism
- Responsibility
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Arts and Humanities