Whether you could have done otherwise in a way the universe did not already fix. The middle band is compatibilism: freedom that survives a determined world.
About this test
Hard determinism says a caused universe leaves no free will and, on some views, no moral responsibility. Libertarianism about free will — not the political kind — says some human choices are not fixed by prior events. Compatibilists, including a line from Hume to Frankfurt and Dennett, say freedom is about acting from your own reasons, without compulsion, and does not need a break in the causal chain. Van Inwagen's consequence argument pushes the other way. These items are original. The middle of the scale is where a consistent compatibilist answer is meant to land.
Question 1 of 11
What this test asks
A complete description of the world yesterday, plus the laws, entailed what you would order for lunch today. You felt no compulsion. Did you choose freely?
You lied to spare yourself. A neuroscientist shows the lie was predictable from earlier states of you. What happens to blame?
Frankfurt imagined a hidden device that would force you to act if you were about to refuse — but you do not refuse, so the device never fires. Are you responsible?
Where, if anywhere, would free will have to show up in the physical world?
You were raised to value honesty, and that history is why you told the truth when it cost you. Is the history a threat?
An addict takes a drug under a craving that swamps reflection. A minute later a neighbor takes the same drug after calm deliberation. Determinism is true in both rooms.
Does 'I could have done otherwise' mean anything you are willing to use?
A judge must sentence two people whose crimes were equally caused by their pasts. One is responsive to reasons. One is not.
You are choosing a career. A Laplace demon knows the choice already. Should you deliberate?
Is moral responsibility something you are willing to keep if free will in the contra-causal sense is false?
Which sentence do you want on the table?
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