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Thomas Pink on Free Will

Philosophy Bites

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The Problem With Fatalist Arguments

A fatalist says everything that appears to be a choice must already be in some sense true so nothing I can do can make any difference. The power we call causation is the power of past events and states causally determine what will happen afterwards or in the future. Could you give an example then of something that's causally determined by the past? Yes. Supposing I pick up a very heavy brick and I hurl it at that window. We can probably tell in advance that the window is bound to break. Well that's pretty clear, but that's something that's inhuman. A brick doesn't have a choice about whether it goes towards the window once it’s been released

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