Portal:Metaphysics

Selected article

The question of free will is whether, and in what sense, rational agents exercise control over their actions and decisions. Addressing this question requires understanding the relationship between freedom and cause, and determining whether the laws of nature are causally deterministic. The various philosophical positions taken differ on whether all events are determined or not — determinism versus indeterminism — and also on whether freedom can coexist with determinism or not — compatibilism versus incompatibilism. So, for instance, 'hard determinists' argue that the universe is deterministic, and that this makes free will impossible.

The principle of free will has religious, ethical, and scientific implications. For example, in the religious realm, free will may imply that an omnipotent divinity does not assert its power over individual will and choices. In ethics, it may imply that individuals can be held morally accountable for their actions. In the scientific realm, it may imply that the actions of the body, including the brain and the mind, are not wholly determined by physical causality. The question of free will has been a central issue since the beginning of philosophical thought.

Selected biography

Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25, 1908 Akron, Ohio – December 25, 2000) (known to intimates as "Van"), was an American analytic philosopher and logician. From 1930 until his death 70 years later, Quine was affiliated in some way with Harvard University, first as a student, then as a professor of philosophy and a teacher of mathematics, and finally as an emeritus elder statesman who published or revised seven books in retirement. He filled the Edgar Pierce Chair of Philosophy at Harvard, 1956-78. Quine falls squarely into the analytic philosophy tradition while also being the main proponent of the view that philosophy is not conceptual analysis. His major writings include "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" (1951), which attacked the distinction between analytic and synthetic propositions and advocated a form of semantic holism, and Word and Object (1960) which further developed these positions and introduced the notorious indeterminacy of translation thesis.

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Did you know?

• ... that spiritualism is a dualist metaphysical theory?
• ... that ideas and concepts are considered to be either abstract objects or mental representations?
• ... that ontology is basically an attempt to create a list of everything exists fundamentally?
• ... that your metaphysical view will influence your theory of mind?

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Philosophy · Aesthetics · Ethics · Logic · Epistemology · Spirituality · Existentialism

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Philosophy · Physics · Logic · Aesthetics · Epistemology · Ethics · Religion · Spirituality

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Requested articles: Pluralistic idealism · Downward causation · Ontological priority

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