Compatibilism

• What is incompatibilism?

  Determinism is incompatible with free will
• What is Compatibilism?

  The belief that free will and determinism are compatible ideas, and that it is possible to believe both without being logically inconsistent.
• What is the middle path?

  It suggests that some of our actions are conditioned while others have so complex a collection of causes that they may properly be described as freely decided or willed. We may be constrained by external circumstances to certain forms of behaviour. For example, if I have no food I cannot eat. If I have food but want to lose weight, I eat less. To eat less is a choice but to have no food due to poverty is to not have a choice
• What does G. E. Moore believe?

  He said that when one acts freely, one simply means that, if he had chosen to do otherwise, he would have done otherwise. The fact that the person may not have been in a position to choose otherwise does not undermine his free agency
• What does AJ Ayer believe?

  The ability to do otherwise means only that, if the past had been different, one might have chosen differently.
• What is Hume's understanding of free will?

  Liberty of spontaneity - the freedom to do something if we so choose
• What was Hume's constant conjunction argument?

  A is accompanied by B. But this does not happen everytime. Therefore, we cannot talk about necessary laws of cause and effect in nature. All we really find in nature is that B follows A
• What does Hume mean by people don't change?

  People's principles and motives are as constant as the patterns of weather. People in all societies depend upon each other to the extent that there is hardly anything we do that is done without reference to others.
• Conclusion of Compatibilism

  The debate about freedom and determinism is about definitions, if we accept Hume's definitions everything becomes clear. For determinists, Hume's idea of necessity and causation as constant conjunction is too watered down. According to scientific determinists, wishes and desires are as determined as everything else. For libertarians, Hume's account causes human reason to become redundant.