Ultimate Questions Thinking About Philosophy 3rd Edition

Free will

the ability to make choices about our own lives and that those choices are solely up to us

Determinism

the future is fixed by the past

Indeterminism

the future is not fixed by the past

Compatibilism

freedom and determinism can coexist

Incompatibilism

freedom and determinism cannot coexist

Hard determinism

no free will because determinism is ture

Fatalism

some events in the future can never be avoided

Compatibilist

claims the ability to act on different hypothetically possible desires is all that is required for freedom.

Problem

if we act with free will whenever an action is caused by our desires, the possibility arises that some of our desires that prompted an action are not identical with our will.