What Freedom in a Deterministic World Must Be
Author(s) -
Brian Looper
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
mind
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.494
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 1460-2113
pISSN - 0026-4423
DOI - 10.1093/mind/fzaa105
Subject(s) - law and economics , law , mathematical economics , political science , economics
Contrary to Lewis (1981) and Vihvelin (2013), I argue that free will in a deterministic world is an ability to break a law of nature or to change the remote past. Even if it were true, as Lewis and Vihvelin think, that an agent who is predetermined to perform a particular act might not break a law or change the remote past by doing otherwise, it would nevertheless be true that he is able to do otherwise only if he is able to break a law or to change the remote past.
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