Title: The Problem of Free Will
Headings: The Problem of Free Will
The Problem of Free Will
Content: Determinism is not "true." The physical world contains quantum randomness - absolute chance. Chance does not mean that every event is completely undetermined and uncaused. And it does not mean that chance is the direct cause of our actions, that our actions are random in any way. Nevertheless, the typical argument of determinists and compatibilists is that if our actions had random causes we could not be morally responsible . To avoid the obvious difficulty for their position, most compatibilist philosophers simply deny the reality of chance. They hope that something will be found to be wrong with quantum mechanical indeterminism. Chance is unintelligible, they say, and thus there is no intelligible account of libertarian free will. Some dismiss free will (as many philosophers denied chance) as an illusion . Recently, professional philosophers specializing in free will and moral responsibility have staked out nuanced versions of the familiar positions with new jargon, like broad and narrow incompatibilism, semicompatibilism, hard incompatibilism, and illusionism.