Table Of ContentFREEDOM,
RESPONSIBILITY,
AND DETERMINISM
A PHILOSOPHICAL DIALOGUE
JOHN LEMOS
Freedom, Responsibility,
and Determinism
A Philosophical Dialogue
Freedom, Responsibility,
and Determinism
A Philosophical Dialogue
John Lemos
Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Indianapolis/Cambridge
Copyright © 2013 by Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
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Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lemos, John, 1963–
Freedom, responsibility, and determinism : a philosophical dialogue / by John
Lemos.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 978-1-60384-930-2 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-1-60384-931-9 (cloth)
1. Free will and determinism. I. Title.
BJ1461.L46 2013
123—dc23
2012036478
Adobe PDF ebook ISBN: 978-1-60384-986-9
To my wife, Laura, and our three children,
Rosa, Billy, and Michael
Contents
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction ix
Freedom, Responsibility, and Determinism
List of Characters 1
Act 1: The Dilemma of Determinism 3
Act 2: Compatibilism 21
Act 3: Libertarianism 41
Act 4: Free Will and Science 64
Act 5: Free Will and Religion 83
Bibliography 97
Index 107
vii
Acknowledgments
The writing of this book would not have been possible without the sup-
port and encouragement of various entities and persons. First, I would
like to thank Coe College for providing me with a job teaching philoso-
phy and for granting me regular sabbatical leaves. This book was writ-
ten during my sabbatical leave in the spring semester of 2012. Second,
I would like to thank the philosophy programs at the University of the
South and Duke University. I was an undergraduate at the University
of the South, and I did my graduate work at Duke University. These
two institutions provided me with the background knowledge and skills
and the passion for philosophy that have made my writing of this book
possible.
In addition to these institutions, I also extend thanks to various persons.
First, I give thanks to my colleagues who teach philosophy with me at Coe
College—Jeff Hoover and Peter McCormick. I am forever in their debt
for the various forms of support and encouragement they have provided
over the years. Second, I thank my undergraduate philosophy teachers—
James Peterman, James Peters, and, especially, William Garland, who was
my advisor during my undergraduate studies. Also, while I am indebted
to various members and former members of the philosophy department at
Duke University, I owe a special debt of gratitude to Michael Ferejohn,
who was the advisor for my Ph.D. thesis at Duke University. I have learned
much from all of these teachers, and they have had a great influence on me
as a philosopher. Third, I am grateful for the advice and encouragement
of Brian Rak, senior editor at Hackett Publishing, and Robert Kane, who
served as an expert reader of the manuscript, for their advice and support in
helping me bring this book to publication.
On a more personal level, I am very grateful for the love and support
I have received over the years from my father and mother, Ramon and
Mamie Lou, and my three older brothers, Noah, Bill, and Chris. Finally,
and most importantly, I owe the most thanks to my wife, Laura, and
our three children, Rosa, Billy, and Michael, to whom I dedicate this
book. Their love, support, and good humor are valuable to me beyond
measure.
viii
Introduction
Questions about the nature and existence of human free will are cer-
tainly some of the big questions of philosophy, rating up there alongside
questions about the nature and existence of God, the nature of persons,
the nature of knowledge, the nature of justice and the good life, and the
nature of the good society. Questions about human freedom are certainly
deserving of their status as “big” questions, since they go to the core of
our self-conception and the status of our moral judgments. It is, I think,
natural for us to believe that we have free will and as such that we have
some control over our own destinies—the shape our lives take. Further-
more, it would seem that if we have such free will, then it makes sense
to think that we are morally responsible for some of the good and bad
deeds that we perform and that we are, therefore, deserving of praise or
blame for some of the things we do. However, if we lack free will, then it
would seem that we are instead something more like cogs within the in-
ner workings of the machine that is our universe and neither responsible
for our actions nor fitting objects of praise or blame. But in these matters,
as in others, our commonsense ideas deserve scrutiny.
This dialogue is a beginner’s guide to the central questions and prob-
lems surrounding the issue of human free will. In it the reader is in-
troduced to the three main approaches to the free will problem—free
will skepticism, compatibilism, and libertarianism. Readers are also in-
troduced to some of the central questions and concerns about free will
that arise within the domains of scientific inquiry and religion. The point
of the dialogue is not to argue for a specific viewpoint on the nature
and existence of free will so much as it is to inform the reader about the
different theories on the subject and the arguments for and against those
theories. In writing it, my goal has been to give a clear, informative,
accurate, and balanced account of the central theories and arguments
relevant to the subject. It is my hope that readers of this dialogue will
find themselves better placed to understand and critically evaluate more
advanced work on the subject.
To aid the reader in understanding the material and in thinking criti-
cally about the issues, each act concludes with a list of study questions
and discussion questions in addition to suggestions for further reading.
The study questions are designed to guide the reader in grasping the
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