Free Will, Moral Responsibility, and Reformed Theology - Analytic ...

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Paul L. Manata © 2011
of determinism is true, what might this mean for what we’ve discussed so far?
To consider whether determinism is a threat to free will and moral responsibility
we need to know what determinism is. Some event or action is determined when
there are prior conditions (e.g., like those mentioned above) that obtain and
which are sufficient for the event or action occurring. That is, it must be the case
that if these prior conditions occur, then the event or action in question must
occur. We might get a better understanding by contrasting the above garden of
forking paths picture with the picture determinism gives us.
= history up to choice
= choice point
= actual path taken
= not live possibilities given
same past, options we see before us
Determinism’s single path
According to this view, then, the past continues in a single, unbroken line. The
branches represent the various possible courses of action that we encounter and