compatibilism

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Traditionally, those who maintain the truth of determinism and believers in the freedom of the will have been regarded as taking up incompatible positions. Thus from one side it is argued that, since all events, including human actions, are causally determined, the belief that we are free is an illusion; from the other side it is argued that we know we are free, and hence universal determinism must be false. Compatibilists maintain that both these arguments are invalid: since a free action is simply one that is not constrained by external forces, there is a perfectly ordinary and proper sense in which we act freely when we do what we want to do; and the existence of such freedom need not presuppose that determinism is false, or that human beings possess some contra-causal power. Defenders of the compatibilist or 'reconciliationist' position have included Leibniz and Hume.

(Published 1987)

— John G. Cottingham

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