REAL AND IMAGINARY FREEDOM

Authors

  • Ching-Hung Woo University of Maryland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/eph.v18i2.35

Keywords:

humanism, metaphysics, free will

Abstract

The body of this essay is free of philosophical jargons. Since however some readers are accustomed to thinking about the free-will problem in terms of the compatibilism/incompatibilism divide, I wish to briefly comment on why this emphasis is not very helpful. If by “freedom” one means that a person’s will is the ultimate choicemaker free from prior causes, then the position of this essay is that “freedom is incompatible with determinism”; but if by “freedom” one means that there is harmony between the intended consequences of a choice and the nature of the choice-maker, the position of this essay is that “freedom is compatible with determinism.” This illustrates that unless there is first an agreement on what is meant by “freedom,” it is premature to put the focus on whether freedom is compatible with determinism.

Author Biography

  • Ching-Hung Woo, University of Maryland

    Ching-Hung Woo, Ph. D., was born in China, and received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1962. He did research at Columbia University and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and has taught physics at the University of Maryland since 1965. He is now retired and lives in San Diego.

References

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Published

2013-10-09

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 2 (2010)

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Woo, C.-H. (2013). REAL AND IMAGINARY FREEDOM. Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism, 18(2), 35-40. https://doi.org/10.1558/eph.v18i2.35