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Essay On Soft Determinism

1452 Words6 Pages

In order to compare and contrast determinism/incompatibilism and soft determinism/compatibilism, one should probably define them first. Determinism can be defined as whatever happens necessarily, and that every event has a cause. Determinism should be distinguished from fatalism though. Fatalism, is the belief that whatever happens, is a result of fate. Determinism allows for many causes, but it doesn’t permit the single possibility that something happens as a result of no cause, (Daniel). Incompatibilism is a philosophical thesis about how relevant determinism actually is to free will. It questions the truth of determinism rules out the existence of free will. An incompatibilist would believe that if determinism turned out to be true, then it must be true that we don’t have free will, and that we never had it to begin with. Soft Determinism is a view that holds that determinism and free will coexist in a person. This is also called Self-Determinism, which is when we are the causes of our actions, and that our actions …show more content…

Neither soft nor hard determinism is flawless or perfect, but I believe hard determinism is the better option of the two. Those who critic soft determinism often focus on their definition of free will. Hard determinists may agree that the soft determinists are affiliated with determinism somehow, by showing something. They just don’t identify what either is, or may be. Incompatibilists are very adamant that what soft determinists are not affiliated with is free will. Hard determinists sometimes accept “the freedom to act” as something soft determinists have, but in their eyes, it is not sufficient. They demand more from compatibilist definition of free will, saying that free will describes something genuine and absolute. Hard determinists believe that free will needs alternate possibilities for actions and beliefs, instead of just having counterfactual options and

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