Do We Have Free Will?: Compatibilist View. The
Seventeenth century philosopher Thomas Hobbes believes that the kind of freedom that is necessary for moral responsibility is consistent with determinism. As he says with characteristic terseness, "Liberty and necessity are consistent." Contemporary...
Do We Have Free Will?: Theory of Determinism, The
The theory of determinism contends that human behavior, like every other physical phenomenon in the universe is determined by the laws of cause and effect rather than free will. The scientific advances of the 17th century and the work of Sir Isaac N...
Do We Have Free Will?: Moral Responsibility and Free Will
In an attempt to reconcile science and free will, Immanuel Kant distinguishes between the phenomenal world of nature and the noumenal world of ideas in which morality and responsibility reside. It is in the noumenal world that we exert free will. Mo...
Do We Have Free Will?: If Determinism were True...
If determinism is true then would our ideas about moral responsibility and punishment have to change as well? Some philosophers contend that we have to think of ourselves as behaving freely even in a world in which there is just one path open to us....
Do We Have Free Will?: Libertarian Perspective on Free Will
Libertarianism asserts we are free to act in other ways than we do. At any given moment it is possible to decide among alternative paths, but choosing one may mean that other options are no longer available. Ancient philosophers believed that we mak...
Can Rules Define Morality?: Kantian Ethics
"Can Rules Define Morality?" addresses Immanuel Kant's rights-based theories of ethics, the categorical imperative. What was new about Kant's moral philosophy is that a superhuman authority is not necessary to determine morality. Our own reason, he ...