Indeterminism in a Deterministic World
Michael Watkins
= Complete Essay =
For the purposes of this
paper I assume that agents always act for reasons, that the reasons an agent
might have depend upon the psychological make-up of the agent, that an agent’s
psychological make-up is realized by the physical, and that the physical events
on which psychological events supervene are causally determined. What I hope to
show is that these assumptions are compatible with psychological indeterminism.
What I hope to show is that an agent could have done otherwise – the cause of
her action might not determine that action – even if her action results from
reasons that are realized by causally determined physical events.