Hard Determinism
OBJECTIONS
Determinism
 The Universality of Causation: Everything that happens
has a cause (which precedes it in time).
 The Sufficiency of Causation: A cause is sufficient for its
effect.
 Determinism: Everything that happens is causally
determined by the past, together with the laws of
nature.

A complete description of the world at one time, together with a
complete description of the laws of nature, entails a complete
description of the world at any later time.
Determinism
Determinism
With earth’s first clay they did the last man knead,
And there of the last harvest sowed the seed.
And the first morning of creation wrote
What the last dawn of reckoning shall read.
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Determinism
If Determinism is true, then our acts are the consequences
of the laws of nature and events in the remote past. But it
is not up to us what went on before we were born, and
neither is it up to us what the laws of nature are.
Therefore, the consequence of these things (including our
present acts) are not up to us.
Peter van Inwagen
The Consequence Argument
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
If Determinism is true, then all of our actions are a
consequence of the state of the world 1 million years ago
and the laws of nature.
The state of the world 1 million years ago isn’t up to us.
The laws of nature aren’t up to us.
If all of our actions are a consequence of the state of the
world 1 million years ago and the laws of nature and (2) and
(3), then none of our actions are up to us.
[So] If determinism is true, none of our actions are up to us.
If none of our actions are up to us, none of our actions are
free.
[So] If determinism is true, none of our actions are free.
The Incompatibility Argument
1) Determinism is true.
2) If (1), then the Freedom Principle is false.
3) [So] The Freedom Principle is false.
Hard Determinism
Hard Determinism
The Will… is necessarily determined by the qualities, good
or bad, agreeable or painful, of the object or the motive
that acts upon his senses, or of which the idea remains
with, and is resuscitated by his memory. In consequence,
he acts necessarily, … he never acts as a free agent.
Baron D’Holbach
Hard Determinism
Choice by no means proves the free agency of man: he only
deliberates when he does not yet know which to choose
of the many objects that move him… until his will is
decided by the greater advantage he believes he shall
find in the object he chooses, or the action he
undertakes. From whence it may be seen, that choice is
necessary….
Baron D’Holbach
Hard Determinism
The opposers of necessity say: that if all the actions of man
are necessary, no right whatever exists to punish bad
ones, or even to be angry with those who commit them…
[But] Laws are made with a view to maintain society, and
to prevent man associated from injuring his neighbor;
they are therefore competent to punish those who
disturb its harmony.
Baron D’Holbach