Determinism, Materialism, and the Nature of Free Will

Determinism and the Concept of Freedom

According to determinism, everything that happens is determined by prior causes. To say that A determines B is to say that A causes B (given A, B must follow). Determinism holds that every event is the necessary result of the chain of causes leading up to it, a chain that runs back into the past. One implication of this view is that all future states of the universe are completely predictable.

The principle that every event is caused is known as the causal principle. It is presupposed in science and also in everyday life. Most of the astonishing progress science has made over the past four centuries has been made on the basis of a mechanistic and deterministic view of the world. If determinism is right, then human decisions and actions must be the necessary effect of prior causes, and perfectly predictable. Practical freedom is the freedom to do what one wishes. This kind of practical freedom is quite different from metaphysical freedom, often referred to as freedom of the will.

Indeterminism

According to this view, human freedom is real, and determinism is false; an act of will is free simply in virtue of being uncaused.

Monistic Materialism

Some philosophers have asserted that all reality belongs ultimately to a single category. This vision is called monism, and the most popular form of monism in the history of Western philosophy has been materialism. This search for the unity that underlies difference and change has been characteristic of Western philosophy and science right up to the present day. Materialism in metaphysics is simply the view that reality is essentially material.

Dualistic Idealism

Idealism is the group of philosophies which assert that reality is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. There are many forms of idealism:

• Platonic idealism: It affirms that abstractions are more real than the things we perceive.
• Subjective idealism: It holds that individuals can only know sensations and ideas of objects directly and that ideas also depend upon being perceived for their existence.