Simple Indeterminism
(Taylor)

Taylor says we cannot solve the freedom problem by simply denying determinism and suggesting that free actions are those that are not determined.

"We shall thereby avoid picturing a puppet, to be sure -- but only by substituting something even less like a man; for the conception that now emerges is not that of a free man, but of an erratic and jerking phantom, without any rhyme or reason at all." (IP3 377b)

"Nor does it improve things to suppose that my bodily motions are caused by my own inner states, so long as we suppose these to be wholly uncaused. The result will be the same as before." (IP3 378a)


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