Open inquiry12 min4 historical perspectives

Can we be responsible if we could not have done otherwise?

Use coercion, habit, prediction, and self-control to separate freedom as alternatives, sourcehood, acting on reasons, and self-understanding.

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1First to second century CEEpictetus — What is up to us is judgment and volition
Epictetus · Discourses and Encheiridion
Can we be free by governing assent to impressions even when external events are not ours to choose?
Epictetus centers personal freedom on prohairesis, the capacity for volition, and the correct use of impressions.
Source and exact locator
The text is a Korean-English summary of the source, not a direct quotation.
Epictetus
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Introduction; §4.2 Prohairesis
Open source
His three areas of training include impulses to act, desire, and assent disciplined against deception and hasty judgment.
Source and exact locator
The text is a Korean-English summary of the source, not a direct quotation.
Epictetus
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: §4.1 The Three Areas of Study
Open source
1. Arrian's records of Epictetus' teaching preserve a discipline of volition and freedom.
  Early second century
21677Spinoza — Freedom through understanding, not an uncaused will
Baruch Spinoza · Ethics
If every action has causes, can understanding those causes make us freer?
For Spinoza, a human mental action is not free in the sense of being determined by an undetermined faculty of will.
Source and exact locator
The text is a Korean-English summary of the source, not a direct quotation.
Spinoza's Psychological Theory
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Introduction; Ethics IIp48
Open source
Yet he allows degrees of freedom insofar as action follows from one’s nature and adequate understanding rather than external interference.
Source and exact locator
The text is a Korean-English summary of the source, not a direct quotation.
Spinoza's Psychological Theory
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Introduction; §3 Human Freedom
Open source
1. The posthumous Ethics explains necessity and human freedom within one nature.
  1677 · Amsterdam · 출판
31748Hume — Liberty compatible with necessity
David Hume · Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, Section VIII
Does the regular dependence of action on character and desire erase responsibility, or make it possible?
Hume offers one of the most influential statements of classical compatibilism, reconciling freedom and moral responsibility with causal determination.
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The text is a Korean-English summary of the source, not a direct quotation.
Hume on Free Will
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Introduction; §1 Liberty and Necessity — The Classical Reading
Open source
On this reading, a free action is not uncaused; it issues from the agent's desires and will and contrasts with action produced by constraint.
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The text is a Korean-English summary of the source, not a direct quotation.
Hume on Free Will
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: §1 The Classical Reading; Treatise 2.3.2 and Enquiry 8
Open source
1. Section VIII of the Enquiry presents a public argument reconciling liberty and necessity.
  1748
41969Frankfurt — Acting for one’s own reasons without alternatives
Harry Frankfurt · Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility
If an intervener could block every alternative but never touches the actual decision, does the absence of alternatives remove responsibility?
The Principle of Alternative Possibilities says a person is morally responsible only if they could have done otherwise.
Source and exact locator
The text is a Korean-English summary of the source, not a direct quotation.
Moral Responsibility and the Principle of Alternative Possibilities
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Introduction; Principle of Alternative Possibilities
Open source
Frankfurt-style cases argue for responsibility without alternatives, but objections continue over residual flickers of freedom and whether the cases presuppose determinism.
Source and exact locator
The text is a Korean-English summary of the source, not a direct quotation.
Moral Responsibility and the Principle of Alternative Possibilities
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: §3.4.3 Frankfurt-Style Cases; §4 Objections
Open source
1. Frankfurt's article shifts attention from alternative possibilities to the actual source of action.
  1969