GLOSSARY

Hard Determinism

The belief that all events are caused by past events such that nothing other than what does occur could occur.

Libertarianism

The belief that some human actions are freely chosen according to the "principles of alternate possibilities":
an action is free only if the agent - that is, the person doing the thing - could have done otherwise.

Compatibilism

The belief that determinism is true but it does not exclude free will. We act freely when we are not constrained or coerced. The agent had the freedom to do otherwise HAD he desired something else.

Free Will

Traditionally conceived of as a kind of power to control one's choices and actions.

It is commonly associated with acting on one's desires contributing to one's happiness.

Reductionism

The idea that any phenomena can be explained and analyzed by simple physical mechanisms. In regards to Determinism and Free Will, it suggests that free will is part of mental states, which are brain states, which in return are biological and can therefore be reduced to physical states. Thus, free will must be determined.