
Published online:
19 January 2017
Published in print:
08 December 2016
Online ISBN:
9780191833205
Print ISBN:
9780199272754
Contents
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14.1 Freedom, Randomness, and Causal Power 14.1 Freedom, Randomness, and Causal Power
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14.2 Freedom as a Causal Power of Events and States? 14.2 Freedom as a Causal Power of Events and States?
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14.3 Freedom as an Agent-Causal Power? 14.3 Freedom as an Agent-Causal Power?
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14.4 How Freedom Excludes Randomness 14.4 How Freedom Excludes Randomness
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14.5 Freedom and Purposiveness 14.5 Freedom and Purposiveness
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14.6 Freedom as a Non-Causal Power 14.6 Freedom as a Non-Causal Power
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14.7 Causal Theories of Freedom and the Bias to the Voluntary 14.7 Causal Theories of Freedom and the Bias to the Voluntary
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14.8 The Randomness Problem Dissolved 14.8 The Randomness Problem Dissolved
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Cite
Pink, Thomas, 'Freedom and Causation', Self-Determination: The Ethics of Action, Volume 1 (Oxford , 2016; online edn, Oxford Academic, 19 Jan. 2017), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272754.003.0015, accessed 9 May 2025.
Abstract
This chapter addresses the randomness problem—the worry, which goes back at least to Hume, that if we remove causal determination from human action, we are left not with freedom but with randomness or mere chance. This problem is shown to be spurious and the product of the assumption that all power is causal—that to determine an outcome is to determine it causally. The non-causal nature of self-determination is further argued for in this chapter, and parallels are developed between freedom and other forms of non-causal power.
Subject
Philosophy of Mind
Collection:
Oxford Scholarship Online
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