MIXORA CONCEPT
Compatibilism
The view that free will or moral responsibility can be compatible with determinism.
Compatibilists usually locate freedom in acting from one's reasons, values or appropriately responsive capacities without coercion, rather than in escaping every prior cause. Different versions give different accounts of the control required.
What “Interpretation” means
This is a philosophical distinction, theory or contested way of organizing a question—not an empirical diagnosis with one universally accepted answer.
VISUAL EXPLANATION · MARKER BOARDChoosing after considering reasons may count as free even if the deliberation itself has causes.
Compatibilism does not deny determinism; it denies that determinism automatically removes the relevant kind of freedom.
Could reasons and reflection guide action even in a causally determined world?
A debated kind of control over one's actions connected to choice, agency and moral responsibility.
→thought × bridgeDeterminismThe thesis that the state of the world together with the laws of nature fixes what happens next.
→thought × bridgeCausationA relationship in which changing one factor makes a difference to another outcome under relevant conditions.
→thoughtDeontologyA family of moral theories centered on duties, permissions, prohibitions or rights rather than consequences alone.
→SOURCES & TRUST
References
Last reviewed
- 01Free WillReference source
Timothy O'Connor and Christopher Franklin · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Control over action, alternative possibilities, sourcehood and moral responsibility.
What the source labels mean
- Primary source
- Original work, experiment, standard or historical text.
- Academic source
- Scholarly research or review published for an academic audience.
- Reference source
- An expert standard, encyclopedia or institutional explanation that summarizes a field.
- General reference
- A practical specialist resource useful for application, but not treated as decisive research by itself.