Freedom and determinism is a philosophical puzzle that attempts to further define other topics, such as the essence of a person and constitutes as a response to the problem of evil. Freedom and determinism goes beyond the abstract realm of philosophy, but bears on practical and political questions as well, such as if people are actually responsible for criminal actions or not. There are four principles of freedom and determinism:
The principle of universal causation (PUC)
Every event has a cause
The Freewill Thesis (FWT)
Sometimes people act freely
The Principle of Availability and Freedom (PAF)
If a person acts freely, then he or she could have done something other than what he or she in fact did
The Auxiliary Principle (Aux. P)
If every event has a cause, then no one could have done anything other than what he or she in fact did These are the principles that cover the topic of freedom and determinism, however, they are incompatible with each other. This presents the puzzle of this topic. At least one of these principles need to be false in order the rest of …show more content…
This states that if a person acts freely then he or she could have done something other than what he or she actually did. Another way to define PAF is if no one could have done anything other than what he or she in fact did, then no one ever acts freely. For example, if I was to be presented with two buttons (A and B), and I chose A, according to this principle, I could have chosen B instead of A. Me choosing button A was not fixed. Providing an example to the second definition, if no one else could have pushed button A instead of B, than no one ever acts freely. The rationale behind this is that it is a conceptual truth. PAF spells out what is involved in out in our ordinary, pre-theoretic concept of acting freely. This means that this principle appears true in our daily encounters. It appears just as easily for us to do action B instead of action A, although we did action
The principle of universal causation (PUC)
Every event has a cause
The Freewill Thesis (FWT)
Sometimes people act freely
The Principle of Availability and Freedom (PAF)
If a person acts freely, then he or she could have done something other than what he or she in fact did
The Auxiliary Principle (Aux. P)
If every event has a cause, then no one could have done anything other than what he or she in fact did These are the principles that cover the topic of freedom and determinism, however, they are incompatible with each other. This presents the puzzle of this topic. At least one of these principles need to be false in order the rest of …show more content…
This states that if a person acts freely then he or she could have done something other than what he or she actually did. Another way to define PAF is if no one could have done anything other than what he or she in fact did, then no one ever acts freely. For example, if I was to be presented with two buttons (A and B), and I chose A, according to this principle, I could have chosen B instead of A. Me choosing button A was not fixed. Providing an example to the second definition, if no one else could have pushed button A instead of B, than no one ever acts freely. The rationale behind this is that it is a conceptual truth. PAF spells out what is involved in out in our ordinary, pre-theoretic concept of acting freely. This means that this principle appears true in our daily encounters. It appears just as easily for us to do action B instead of action A, although we did action