The Difference Between Free Will And Determinism And Free Will

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A man is said to be morally responsible if and only if he acted freely when he performed whatever action it might be. A man is not held morally responsible if he did not act freely and the act was simply caused by prior factors which there is no control over. The freedom of the will argument states these hypotheses. Determinism is the thesis that there are conditions that make future events happen the way they happen. Philosophers then interpret determinism to be compatible or incompatible with free will. If you believe that free will isn’t compatible with determinism, then you believe it to be true that there is a difference between determinism and free will (incompatibilism). If you believe that free will is compatible with determinism, then you believe it to be true that there is no difference between determinism and free will (compatibilism). Therefore, freewill isn’t compatible with determinism because freewill and determinism are conceptually different. …show more content…

Chisholm and Ayer are great examples of this because they both have very different ways of interpreting the freedom of the will argument. Ayer believes that we should not contrast freedom with causal determinism. Rather we should contrast it with physical force or constraint. He believes that being free is compatible with the laws of nature and he thinks that freedom is incompatible with someone forcing you to do something or constraining your actions physically. Contrary to Ayer, Chisholm believes that it is not enough if a person could’ve done otherwise if he or she chooses not to do otherwise. Chisholm believes that all men act freely and that we have control over what we want and choose to

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