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A Reflection on Our Freedom

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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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Notes

  1. For an alternative view, see Ginet (1990).

References

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Correspondence to Matthew H. Slater.

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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

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