PHIL 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Omniscience, Monadology, Incompatibilism
4 May 2018
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History of Modern Philosophy
2.21.18 Lecture Notes – Leibniz and Clarke, 5th Correspondence
- Free will
- Why is free will an issue?
o How intertwined the development of philosophy is with science
o Multiple worries about free will
▪ Concerned about whether human freedom can be reconciled with divine
foreknowledge or the perfect knowledge of God or even predestination
▪ New mechanical view of the universe – mechanical explanation in terms
of matter and motion
• If human beings can also be explained mechanically, also seems
problematic how humans can have any freedom
▪ If thee’s o fee ill, the it sees like oal esposiility does ot
exist
- Compatibilism: free will + determinism (causal determinism, each event is determined
by the causes of that event) are compatible
o Also known as soft determinism
o Human actions are caused but there still is free will
▪ I ate the cookie and I could have not eaten the cookie
▪ Truth of determinism is not a threat to moral responsibility
- Incompatibilism: free will + determinism are incompatible – does not take a position on
whether or not determinism is true
o Branches out into indeterminism and libertarian view of free will
- Hard determinism:
o I had to eat the cookie
- Libertarian view of free will – denies the truth of determinism, not all events are fully
causally determined
Leibniz:
- Does Leiiz’s ie of fee ill gie us a otio of oal esposiility?
- Leibniz has a view of causal determinism and pre-determined harmony
o Clarke believes this system does not allow for free will and is fatalism
- Absolute necessity: has to do with the principle of non-contradiction
o Something has to be a certain way out of necessity OR there is a contradiction
- Fatalism: it is inevitable that everything will turn out the way they do
o Since God controls everything
- Hypothetical necessity: what is necessary as a consequence of an assumption
o We assue that thee’s a old eated y God ad that eeythig that
happes i it is a oseuee of God’s ill
o Everything that happens in this world is hypothetically necessary, but everything
that are not contradictory (all contingent things) are not necessary in themselves
they’e ot asolutely eessay
- In the realm of hypothetical necessity, human free choice can exist
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Document Summary
2. 21. 18 lecture notes leibniz and clarke, 5th correspondence. If human beings can also be explained mechanically, also seems problematic how humans can have any freedom. If the(cid:396)e"s (cid:374)o f(cid:396)ee (cid:449)ill, the(cid:374) it see(cid:373)s like (cid:373)o(cid:396)al (cid:396)espo(cid:374)si(cid:271)ility does (cid:374)ot exist. Compatibilism: free will + determinism (causal determinism, each event is determined by the causes of that event) are compatible: also known as soft determinism, human actions are caused but there still is free will. I ate the cookie and i could have not eaten the cookie: truth of determinism is not a threat to moral responsibility. Incompatibilism: free will + determinism are incompatible does not take a position on whether or not determinism is true: branches out into indeterminism and libertarian view of free will. Libertarian view of free will denies the truth of determinism, not all events are fully causally determined.
