Difference Between Determinism And Compatibilism

Van Inwagen believes determinism and compatibilism result in an illogical assumption that an individual can have free choice. A deterministic world claims the world now is what it is because of the world a moment ago, but the compatibilist view says you have free choice in a deterministic world; if all scenarios were pre-determined, then, an individual believes he or she has a choice but in actuality it was predetermined and meant to happen at that very moment despite their “choice”. “Determinism indeed says that of all the physically possible connections with the present”; “my position is that some futures that could not be joined to the present with-out a violation of the laws of nature are, nevertheless, open to us,” said Van Inwagen on

This perspective says JoJo is not responsible for his actions as dictator because according to the definition of sanity given earlier, he is not sane. “JoJo’s actions flow from desires that flow from his deep self, unlike us, JoJo’s deep self itself is insane,” says Wolf (pg.335). JoJo is aware of what he is doing by fulfilling his father’s position, but he does not comprehend torturing is wrong or the refusal to salute results in death is cruel. However, JoJo’s actions and values are not to be blamed only upon his desires and wishes, but external forces such as his father that conditioned these ideas into this mindset. The deep-self views provides reasons that defend deprived children and victims of societies to not be held responsible for their actions. “It seemed that the reason JoJo is not responsible earlier for his actions was that although his actions were governed by his deep self, his deep self was not up to him,” according to page 335. JoJo grew up believing what his father was doing was correct to gain such high authority, so he couldn’t have been wrong. He was influenced by his father, his culture, and his schooling which in return created the product we read about during this essay. As stated on page 334B, “It is unclear if anyone with a childhood such as his could have developed into anything but the twisted and perverse sort of person he has