After Compatibilism and Incompatibilism
Ted Honderich
A determinism of decision and action, despite an interpretation of Quantum
Theory, is a reasonable assumption. Contra
Searle, it certainly is not unsettled by our inner experience in deciding and
acting. The doctrines of
Compatibilism and Incompatibilism are both false, and evidently so. The real
problem of determinism has seemed to be that of accomodating ourselves to the
frustration of certain attitudes and practices, at bottom certain desires. This
project can run up against a kind of conviction owed to reflection on your life,
autobiographical reflection. The conviction is that the mentioned desires, and
in particular an attitude of holding yourself morally responsible for your past,
despite the truth of determinism, may have some basis. We need to look for a
radical idea in this connection, not the machinery of origination, as much of a
departure as is the doctrine of Consciousness as Existence in connection with
the problem of consciousness.