Title: Compatibilism and Incompatibilism are compatible. : philosophy
Headings: Compatibilism and Incompatibilism are compatible.
Compatibilism and Incompatibilism are compatible.
Compatibilism and Incompatibilism are compatible.
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Content: One common response to the pestering to 'just look at compatibilism' is that compatibilism 'shifts the goalposts' or that it is 'missing the point'. This is typically said derogatorily against the view and is followed by dismissal. My thinking follows the same kinds of lines, however I won't end in dismissal. The compatibilists are having an entirely different discussion than the incompatibilists. It is definitely a discussion still worth having, but it is different. The compatibilist notion of free will has a lot to do with what we might call desire or intent. It doesn't matter if you are causally determined or not when you picked up the ball, if picking up the ball is what you intended or desired to do, you acted as a free agent. If someone forced you to pick up the ball when you didn't intend to, you did not act as a free agent. Its a useful definition of free will if we want to preserve any kind of moral intuitions about responsibility in actions. The incompatibilist notion of free will has nothing to do with intent or desire and is more to do with the possibility for control.