Section VIII Of Liberty and Necessity
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Section VIII "Of Liberty and Necessity" is a chapter in David Hume’s *An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding* that examines the compatibility of human freedom with causal determinism.
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book chapter
→
philosophical text → |
| aimsTo |
clarify the meaning of key terms in the free will debate
→
show that disputes about liberty and necessity are largely verbal → |
| arguesAgainst |
liberty understood as complete indeterminism
→
the view that necessity is incompatible with moral responsibility → |
| arguesThat |
human actions follow regular causal laws similar to events in nature
→
liberty is compatible with actions being causally determined → liberty should be understood as the power to act according to the determinations of the will → moral responsibility requires that actions flow from a person’s character and motives → the notion of necessity is derived from constant conjunction and inference of the mind → |
| author | David Hume → |
| claims |
our practices of praise and blame presuppose causal regularities in human behavior
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removing necessity would undermine moral responsibility → the same necessity observed in matter is observed in human actions → |
| containedIn | first edition of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding → |
| critiques | metaphysical notions of free will divorced from experience → |
| defines |
liberty as a power of acting or not acting according to the determinations of the will
→
necessity as constant conjunction plus inference of the mind → |
| discusses |
common-sense views about freedom and responsibility
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relationship between motives, character, and actions → |
| genre | philosophical essay → |
| historicalContext | 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment philosophy → |
| influenced |
later compatibilist theories of free will
→
subsequent discussions of moral responsibility → |
| influencedBy | early modern debates on determinism → |
| locatedInWorkSection | middle sections of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding → |
| mainTopic |
causal determinism
→
compatibilism → free will → liberty → moral responsibility → necessity → |
| partOf | An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding → |
| philosophicalDiscipline |
ethics
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metaphysics → philosophy of action → |
| philosophicalTradition |
early modern philosophy
→
empiricism → |
| positionDefended |
compatibilist view of free will
→
reconciliation of liberty with necessity → |
| usesMethod |
conceptual analysis of liberty and necessity
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empirical analysis of human behavior → |
| workLanguage | English → |
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.