inkompatibilist

An inkompatibilist is a philosopher who believes that free will and determinism are logically incompatible. This means that if determinism is true, then free will cannot exist, and if free will exists, then determinism must be false. Inkompatibilism is a stance within the broader philosophical debate about free will and determinism.

There are two main positions within inkompatibilism. Hard determinists accept that determinism is true and therefore conclude that free will does not exist. They argue that all events, including human actions, are causally necessitated by prior events and the laws of nature. Consequently, individuals could not have acted otherwise than they did.

The other main inkompatibilist position is libertarianism (in the context of free will, not political libertarianism). Libertarians deny that determinism is true and affirm that humans possess free will. They propose that at least some human choices are not causally determined and that individuals have the genuine ability to choose between different possible courses of action. This often involves positing a form of agency that can initiate causal chains without being determined itself.

The inkompatibilist position is contrasted with compatibilism, which argues that free will and determinism can coexist. Compatibilists often redefine free will in a way that does not require the absence of causal determination, for example, by defining it as acting according to one's desires or intentions, even if those desires and intentions are themselves determined. The debate between inkompatibilists and compatibilists is a central and enduring topic in metaphysics and ethics.