Introduction to PhilosophyNotes This is not a substitute for coming to class - or for reading the material. Richard Lee
Philosophy 2003Copyright © 2007, Richard Lee Spring 2007
 

Soft Determinism: Taylor's Criticism

The Soft Determinist says:

P did A freely = P's doing A had as its immediate cause a psychological state in the agent.

But if Soft Determinism is true, then these psychological states themselves (like all other things) are causally determined.

So, they could not have been otherwise.

(See the Ingenious Physiologist Example.)


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Richard Lee, rlee@uark.edu, last modified: 10 October 2004