Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Hume: Compatibilism

Hume believes that determinism and freewill are compatible. I have always had issues with compatibilists because determinism and freewill appear to contradict each other. Determinism implies that everything happens for a physical, statistical reason. All of the facts about one moment, when considered along with the laws of nature, determine all of the facts about the very next moment. Freewill does not seem to fit into this equation because there is no room human decision. Even if we think we are making decisions in a deterministic world, we are not because every decision is determined by facts about the past (like the person P choosing between actions A and B, which I talked about in my last post on liberty). I think that people are normally inclined to think that we have freewill because we are constantly making choices and we feel in control of those choices. When considered along with determinism, however, it seems possible that maybe we are not in control of the decisions we make. Perhaps we choose to do something because all of the facts about the world and the laws of nature in the very moment before we made the decision determined that we would make that decision. So, suppose there are two routes that I can take from campus to my house---one is faster, with lots of highways, and the other is longer, with back roads and a nice scenery--and I need to decide which route I'm going to take home today during rush hour. Although I may feel in control of my decision to take the scenic route to avoid traffic, the facts about the world and the laws of nature at that moment played a role in determining my decision. Fact #1, there is traffic on the highways because it's rush hour. Fact #2, I hate traffic. Fact #3, the scenic route will take less time today at this time. Fact #4, I enjoy the scenic route. All of these facts (and laws about nature, I suppose, because I cannot drive through the traffic and things like that) determined what decision I would make.

2 comments:

Sandy Rizzo said...

You made great points in this post.

Anonymous said...

i dont believe in compatibilism either, and do not know of any good arguments for it. i believe in free will, though. i believe a person could think separately from there feelings and emotions and experiences. i think it is better for a person to believe in free will over determinism for better moral judgmetn also.