Your complimentary articles

You’ve read all of your complimentary articles for this month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please

If you are a subscriber please sign in to your account.

To buy or renew a subscription please visit the Shop.

If you are a print subscriber you can contact us to create an online account.

Articles

Determinism and Human Experience

by Anthony Winder

In supporting Dr. Johnson’s assertion (“We know our will is free, and there’s an end on’t”), Antony Flew claims to demonstrate that “the thesis of universal, necessitating determinism cannot even be understood except by creatures who must be in a position to know that it is false” (Human Agency and Natural Necessity, Philosophy Now, Issue 1).

Flew’s argument hinges around the concept of action and its relation to our human experience as agents. The concept of action Flew presents essentially involves choice. “An agent is a creature who … can and cannot but make choices … between alternative courses of action both or all of which are open.

…