Causation & Free Will

Introduction

Basics

Analysis

Evidence

Free Will

Analysis

The questions that classify the types of causation are:

1. Is event-event causation real Y/N?
2. Is random causation real Y/N?
3. Is agent causation real Y/N?
4. Is agent causation restricted to one realizable alternative?

There being four yes/no questions, the total number of combinations is 2⁴ i.e. sixteen, which are shown in the left table.

However, we can simplify this table. If the answer to question 3 is No, question 4 is irrelevant, which we will denote by a hyphen on the middle table (rows a to d and i to l).

This reveals that there are four pairs of identical combinations in the table, so the unique combination reduces to twelve in the right table (rows a to h and m to p).

Furthermore, if the view that agent causation is real allows event-event and random causation to be real, but does not require them to be so, this reduces the combinations to six (rows a to d plus e and m).

Hence, focusing the basic questions on freewillism, and including questions on determinism and indeterminism, reveals:

1. The mapping between the types of causation and the main philosophic positions on free will is:
   • (Hard) determinism correlates to event-event causation, with no free will.
   • Indeterminism correlates to random causation, with no free will.
   • Freewillism allows all three types of causation (event-event, random and agent):
     • Hard freewillism allows indeterminate (libertarian) free will.
     • Soft freewillism allows determinate free will.
     
     
2. Two additional philosophic positions are revealed, neither of which ar compatible with free will:
   • "Non-causalism" that recognizes no form of causation, e.g. eternalism.
   • "Non-freewillism" that allows event-event and random but not agent causation.