Philosophers

When did philosophers first start arguing about free will and determinism and who were they?

Comments

Aristotle raises this issue in On Interpretation 9, but simply assumes that we have free will. The ancient Stoics believed that the only freedom of will that we have is the freedom to assent or dissent from the way things actually are. In other words, we have no free will over how things actually happen in the world. I believe (subject to correction!) that these were the first philosophersto address the question of free will directly.

I think that is quite right. I would simply highlight that the debate over freedom and determinism came to an important point in the 17th century with Ralph Cudworth when philosophers came (for the first time, perhaps) to articulate radical notions of freedom that involve a person engaging in a kind of self-transcendence, an ability to step back from her or his current character and engage in a kind of self-creation, making choices that would transform a person involving the formation of a new character.

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