Hume's mistake

Author: Hodgson D.

Source: Journal of Consciousness Studies, Volume 6, Numbers 8-9, 1999 , pp. 201-24(-176)

Publisher: Imprint Academic

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Abstract:

Hume claimed that anything that happens must either be causally determined or a matter of chance, and that a person is responsible only for choices caused by the person's character; so that if any sense is to made of free will and responsibility, it must be on the basis that they are compatible with determinism. In this paper I argue that Hume's claim depends on a covert assumption that whatever happens to any system in the world must be either the only development of the system which is consistent with causal laws, or else a development which is random. I argue that it is a serious mistake to make such an assumption covertly; and that without this assumption, good sense can be made of a concept of free will and responsibility as being indeterministic, thereby providing a viable alternative to compatibilist views

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: Supreme Court of New South Wales, Queens Square, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia. Email:raeda@ozemail.com.au:

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