Title: Compatibilism
Headings: Compatibilism
Compatibilism
Content: We are free, and we have free will, if we are not in physical chains. But freedom of the will is different from freedom of action. Many compatibilists accept the view of a causal chain of events going back indefinitely in time, consistent with the laws of nature, with the plan of an omniscient God, or with other determinisms. As long as our own will is included in that causal chain, we are free, they say. And they think causality in nature is related to the very possibility of reason and logic. Without causality, they say, we could not be of the truths of our arguments. Compatibilists don't mind all their decisions being caused by a metaphysical chain of events, as long as they are not in physical chains. We think compatibilists should be classified according to the particular determinisms they think are compatible with human freedom. It is one thing to claim compatibility with physics, another to claim compatibility with God's foreknowledge, etc. An increasing number of compatibilists, often reluctantly, accept the view that random quantum mechanical events occur in the world.