John Chaffee's View Of Free Will

There are many different views on whether people have free will, John Chaffee discusses four views of the subject: Determinism, Compatibilism, Indeterminism, and Libertarianism. Determinism is "The view that every event, including human actions, is brought by previous events in accordance with universal causal laws that govern the world. Human freedom is an illusion (Chaffee 4.1)". In his book, The Philosopher's Way, John Chaffe goes on to explain five theories supporting human behavior: Human Nature, Environmental Influences, Psychological Forces, Free Will, and Social Dynamics. The second view discussed by Chaffee is Compatibilism, which is "The view that all events, including human actions are caused. However, we can consider human actions free if they are the result of internal motivations, not the product of external influences or constraints (4.1)".

The third view Chaffee discusses is indeterminism, which is "The view that some events, including human actions, are determined by previous events in accordance with universal causal laws (4.1)". This view Chaffee discusses would reason that everyone can do otherwise. Therefore, a person who commits murder could make the choice to not commit murder and so that person is completely responsible for his or her actions. Lastly, Chaffee discusses Libertarianism, "The view that humans are able to make authentically free choices that are not determined by previous events in accordance to universal causal laws, that there is a meaningful sense that though we "could have done otherwise" (4.1)". Although indeterminism and libertarianism are closely related, Chaffee does not refer to indeterminism following universal causal