The philosophical studies of Yamaguchi University

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The philosophical studies of Yamaguchi University Volume 14
published_at 2007-03

The unreality of free will

自由意志の非実在性
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I do not believe in the reality of free will, not because I support determinism, but because I simply cannot understand what ”free will”means. There have been several well-known explanations about what free will is: (1)the ability of having done otherwise, (2) causal spontaneity, (3) freedom from determinism, and (4) so-called ”transcendental freedom”. I shall show in this paper that from the point of view of someone who cannot hold the very concept of free will, these explanations are insufficient or circular. If (1) and (2) are neverhteless common-sense views, we can defend the hypothesis that ”free will” is a type of probabilistic randomness.