Determinism Revisited

[The One and Only...]

There are several refutations of determinism, but many you will not accept.

You see, I can't figure you out, Brandon. You are irreligious, but somehow want to believe in fanciful concepts like free will. You're also left-wing, which breeds determinists (that's why the communists thought that they could create a new socialist man who strives for the good of all).

Anyway...

The most basic refutation is this: God endows us with free will, because without free will there would not exist any moral good.

I doubt you will find that one... sufficient. So here is another one, strait from the textbook:

"In the second place, some think that determinism is downright incompatible with genuine thinking, using the word to cover a broad range of intellectual activities. Setting adide such intellectual experiences as intuition, flashes of insight, and creative imagination, which some think transcend the flux and flow of blind and mechanical causation, is not the determinist caught in a hopeless if not self-contradictory position?"

Now, you may wonder at that staement, but consider this conversation and you may see what he is talking about.

"Determinist: All things are causally determined.
Indeterminist: But is that statement itself therefore causally determinded?
Determinist: Why, of course. I just said that everything is!
Indeterminist: Well, then, why should I take it seriously?
Determinist: Because I am a rational person, and I offer it as a rational position.
Indeterminist: But that's just the point. I don't call people or positions "rational" that are blind products of antecedent causes. I might as well argue with a turnip!"

Perhaps the simplest way to get rid of determism is to get rid of materialism. Materialism and determinism usually go hand in hand in philosophical realms. And truly, materialism and determinism is not that difficult to replace with idealism and free will.