Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Frankfurt-style compatibilism notwithstanding, if a proph... — Carmelics
    Home
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Part of a larger discussion

    Challenges→Even a very specific prophecy that renders an action inevitable does not thereby make that action unfree.

    Frankfurt-style compatibilism notwithstanding, if a prophesied agent's deliberative process is pre-determined by foreknowledge, the will's authenticity is undermined, as Kant argued in the Critique of Pure Reason regarding causal necessity and rational autonomy.

    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.

    No one has weighed in yet. Be the first to share reasons for or against this statement.

    Sign in or register to share your perspective on this statement.

    Key Terms

    Critique of Pure Reason(as the specific work where Kant discussed these ideas)
    Kant's major philosophical book (published 1781) examining the limits of human knowledge and arguing that our minds actively structure our experience of the world.
    Deliberative process(as the thinking process of an agent making a choice)
    The mental work you do when you think through a decision—weighing options, considering reasons, and deciding what to do.
    Foreknowledge(Boethius's distinction between knowing and foreknowing)
    Knowledge of future events prior to their occurrence, distinguished from mere knowledge in that it implies temporal priority and thus raises the question of whether the future is already fixed
    Frankfurt-style compatibilism(as the main opposing view being discussed)
    A philosophical position arguing that you can have free will even if your actions are determined by prior causes—named after philosopher Harry Frankfurt, who used thought experiments about people being controlled by others to show that what matters for freedom is whether your own desires are driving your choices.

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Explore a random proposition
    Start fresh with something unrelated.
    Kant(as used in epistemology and metaphysics)
    Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was an influential German philosopher who argued that our minds shape how we experience reality, and that we can only truly know things as they appear to us, not as they are in themselves.
    Pre-determined(as describing whether an action is already settled before the person acts)
    Decided or set in advance, before it actually happens; fixed by prior causes or conditions.
    Rational autonomy(as what Kant believed was undermined by causal necessity)
    The freedom to govern yourself through your own reasoning and decisions, rather than being controlled by forces outside your conscious control.
    Will's authenticity(as what is being undermined or damaged)
    Whether your choices come from your true self and genuine desires—whether your decisions are really *yours* rather than forced or controlled by outside forces.
    causal necessity(Hume's account in EHU 7.2.28–29; 8.1.5)
    The constant conjunction of similar objects together with a customary inference of the mind from one to the other; the feeling of necessary connection is a product of the imagination, not an objective force in the world.
    compatibilism(Offered as a response to the traditional problem of free will)
    The philosophical position that free will and moral responsibility are compatible with determinism being true
    knowledge(Distinguished from mere true belief, which may be the product of indoctrination and need not exercise deliberative capacities.)
    Justified true belief — true belief that has been arrived at through the exercise of deliberative capacities, including comparison of and deliberation among alternatives.

    Connections

    1 topic

    Free Will & Foreknowledge1 linked

    Related

    Even a very specific prophecy that renders an action inevitable does not thereby...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    0 (0 for, 0 against)
    Edits
    1 edit

    Open for perspectives

    This idea is waiting for its first supporting or challenging perspective.

    Share the first perspective