 |
Arthur Schopenhauer
(1788-1860) |
In the last
post about determinism and free will it was stated that according to
the determinism definition and the examples
we’ve dealt with it is impossible to prove that we have free will. In fact, deterministic reasoning suggests that we have
no free will; however, there are various branches of determinism – for instance
compatibilism (since William James called
also soft determinism). What’s the definition of compatibilism and what’s so
interesting about it? The interesting part of it is probably combining free will with determinism –
according to compatibilism free will can
exist even if our actions are determined.
You may
wonder how it is possible but as you’ll see the answer is really easy. It’s all
about defining free will correctly (from the compatibilists’ point o view of
course). It is possible to define free will in such a way that – despite deterministic
limitations – free will will be still free (though it will not be free from determinants). Take a closer look to the
definition of free will by Arthur Schopenhauer:
