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Personal Identity & Time

Compatibilism

Craig Ross on whether freedom is all it’s been made up to be.

Some believe that humans have free will; others that each of our actions and choices is caused by prior events. Compatibilism is the theory that we can be both caused and free. It is advocated by many modern philosophers, including the prolific and influential Daniel Dennett. But compatibilism is nothing new.

Hobbes famously said that man was as free as an unimpeded river.