Abstract
Imagine a deterministic world with plane-symmetry. Beings near this plane might well mistake it for a mirror. When they realize their error, they might be apt to relinquish even stronglyheld commitments to views about the compatibility of freedom and determinism. The following account reports such reflections.
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For an alternative view, see Ginet (1990).
References
Ginet, C. (1990). On action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Strawson, P. F. (1962). Freedom and resentment, reprinted in G. Watson (Ed.), Free will. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Stawson, P. F. (1985). Skepticism and naturalism: Some varieties. London: Methuen.
Wittgenstein, L. (1969). On certainty. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
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The basic premise of this story occurred to me many years ago, before reading John Leslie’s “Ensuring Two Bird Deaths With One Throw” (Mind vol. 100: 73–86) which employs the symmetrical deterministic universe to achieve quite different ends. Achille Varzi borrowed the basic premise for “Room 88” in his and Casati’s Insurmountable Simplicities. I thank Andrea Borghini, Chris Haufe, Achille Varzi, Neil Williams, an anonymous referee for Philosophia, and particularly Roy Sorensen and David Wolfe (who, in a close possible world, is a co-author of a no-doubt-better version of this essay) for discussion.
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Slater, M.H. A Reflection on Our Freedom. Philosophia 38, 327–330 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-009-9221-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-009-9221-5