Philosophy 1110 (Introduction to Philosophy) Dr. Yalçın

The Argument that Indeterminism does not yield free will (or action)

(In support of premise (3) of the Master Argument):

Main Idea: There is a big difference between doing something, and just contributing to its happening. For example, if I contributed to the election of a person as president by donating a couple of dollars to her campaign, I did not thereby make her president. Her becoming president was not something I did. In an indeterministic universe, a person at best becomes a contributing cause to the various motions his body makes; he does not move his body.

Here is the simple argument:

(1) If X does A freely, X does A. {analytically true premise)

(2) If the universe is indeterministic, then what X wants etc., is not sufficient to make A happen.

\ (3) If the universe is indeterministic, then X does not do A even if A happens.

\ (4) If the universe is indeterministic, X does not do a freely, because he doesn’t even do A.

Here is the more detailed argument:

(1) If X did A freely, X did A. {analytically true premise)

(2) If X did A, then X was not just a necessary, contributing cause of A. {premise based on main idea above}

\ (3) If X did A freely, then X was not just a necessary, contributing cause of A. {fm. 1 and 2, by Hypothetical Syllogism}

(4) If the universe is indeterministic, nothing is a sufficient cause of A. {Indeterminism, applied to human action}

(5) If nothing is a sufficient cause of A, then nothing about X (including her wants, desires, etc.) is a sufficient cause of A either. {analytically true premise}

\ (6) In an indeterministic universe, nothing about X (including her wants, desires, etc.) is a sufficient cause of A. {fm. 4 and 5, by HS}

(7) If nothing about X (her wants, desires, whatever) is a sufficient cause of A, then X is at best a necessary contributing cause of A {premise, from the definition of necessary and sufficient cause}

\ (8) If the universe is indeterministic, X is at best a necessary contributing cause of A. {6 and 7 by HS)

\ (9) If the universe is indeterministic, X did not do A freely. {fm. 3 and 8, by contraposition and HS}