Article: Van Inwagen’s Libertarianism
October 11, 2012
Randomness Objection
[What van Inwagen calls] The Mind argument proceeds by identifying indeterminism with chance and by arguing that an act that occurs by chance, if an event that occurs by chance can be called an act, cannot be under the control of its alleged agent and hence cannot have been performed freely. Proponents of [this argument] conclude, therefore, that free will is not only compatible with determinism but entails determinism. (p.16)
Note that van Inwagen's Mind argument adds the second horn of the dilemma of determinism. He named it the Mind Argument after the philosophical journal Mind where objections to chance were often published.
Thus van Inwagen's Consequence and Mind Arguments are the two parts of the standard argument against free will.
Although van Inwagen is famous for the first horn of the dilemma, the determinism objection to free will (also known as the Direct Argument), he has also contributed significantly to the second – and much more difficult to reconcile – randomness objection. (also known as the Indirect Argument).
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