Walter Terrence Stace's Version Of Compatibilism

The issue I will address in this paper is known as “compatibilism.” By definition, compatibilism is the idea that determinism is true, every event in the world is caused, and that free will still exist. I will explore Walter Terrence Stace’s version of compatibilism, explaining why he thinks learned professors of philosophy and psychology incorrectly define free will by confusing the meaning of the words. I will assess Stace’s argument; that indeterminism is not what it is meant by the phrase “free will.” Freedom is compatible with causal determinism because free will can be determined by the psychological states of an individual and the effects of physical forces or conditions upon that individual. In addition, I will discuss Stace’s belief of moral responsibility being compatible with determinism. Although there are many objections to Stace’s version of compatibilism, there are reasons to believe his theory holds true. …show more content…
He believes that they have encountered a semantic problem. By confusing the meaning of the words, they’ve arbitrarily defined free will. He explains how easily a definition can be mistakenly construed. For instance, if one believes that the definition of a man is a “five-legged animal.” And suppose they ventured out into the world to rightly observe that five-legged animals do not exist, furthermore denying the existence of men. Concluding that men do not exist is merely a fact based on an incorrect definition. Similarly, philosophers have assumed the incorrect definition of free will then finding that there’s nothing that coincides with the definition leading to the denial of its