Theories of Knowledge notes for Tuesday 11/19/02

-The last day to take the test will be this Thursday by 7:00 PM in elex
-Journals will be handed back on Thursday

Free Will

3 positions on free will:
1) Libertarianism- The belief that there are some free acts. However that doesn’t mean
that you have the freedom to do anything. You are bound by both logical and physical
restrictions.
2) (hard) Determinism- The belief that there are no free acts.
3) Compatiblism (soft determinism)- the belief that you do have free will in some cases.

-Both Libertarians and Hard Determinists define free will as being: The power to have
done otherwise under identical circumstances.
-Compatibilists define try to redefine free will as doing what you want.

-Hard determinists feel that everything happens because it was meant to happen, based on
environmental or physical factors. There is never any choice or decision things happen
because that’s the only way they could happen.

-Libertarians feel that people do have a choice in what happens to them. The outcome of
a circumstance is based on the choice of an individual, a choice which could have been
made a multitude of ways under identical circumstances.

-Arguments for Hard Determinism-
1) Argument from fate.
-Religious argument.
-Argument from relativity or unrelativity of time.
2) Argument from divine knowledge